The Heroes Legacies
by cherriedfeathers
Summary: It's been years after the war and the demigods are all finally safe, with their kids in their hands, they bring their legacies for a summer at Camp Half-Blood to train and reunite. But when things go awry for the group of Legacies when a tragedy strikes and yet another prophecy is stated they go on a journey to get their loved ones back. [OCs] [First Book]
1. I - Laura

_➝ I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **I**

 **LAURA**

Before a family of four came flying through her kitchen window and a boy kicked her in the face, Laura was having a rotten day. It was raining in the beginning of a fresh July and all that she was allowed to do over summer vacation was stay at home, it had something to do with her parent's ridiculous sense of being over-protective of their kids. It was depressing enough that it was raining, but all of Laura's friends were probably out at the mall or doing something _without her_ at the very least, and all she could think to do was to look down from the 16th story of an apartment building at cars and buses passing underneath.

Laura didn't know _how_ long it was that she had blanked out, but she decided that she had enough of staring blankly down at the cars and listening to the sound of rain, so she lifted her tired hands up to the window and pushed it down. A satisfying lock noise made and Laura sat up from the small window seat and sighed whilst staring at her messy room. Ever since summer vacation started it was a useless bust to do anything productive at all. She had spent all her summers this way, locked up at home and if not, she was spending time with her family.

There were clothes, books and snacks lying scattered around her room, from on her bed to on the floor it was just an exact representation about how Laura had felt the past couple of days. Before school ended everyone was talking about where they would go for break and Laura could say nothing but the fact that she'd stay home. She didn't know about her brother, but since her 14 years since birth, Laura had eventually learned to dream about a vacation. One with a beach maybe, or somewhere with lots of delicious food, perhaps even just a nearby city where she could spend time with her family _other_ than their cramped apartment.

Laura sighed at the image of a nice beach maybe somewhere and began to pick up clothes ranging from hoodies, shirts and underwear. Once she'd collected everything, she folded them by type of clothing and put them neatly into a drawer, just because she'd acted messy at one point didn't mean she didn't like being neat. Next she grabbed the snacks (which were several chocolate bars and a bag of sweet n' spicy Doritos) and shoved them into a basket, lastly she picked up the books which were a pair of _'Harry Potter'_ books. She pushed the basket underneath her bed with her foot and pushed the books into a shelf but just as the books slid into their place there was a knock on her door.

It couldn't be her parents, since they were out doing who knows what and had left Laura alone with her brother at home. So it could only be one other person, _her brother._ Lo' and behold, it was her brother, Jasper. He looked just as drained as Laura did, with dark circles under his eyes and with 0% effort in his clothing, he was wearing a shirt twice too big for him that read ' _No pants are the best pants'_ and he apparently took its word since he wasn't wearing any pants.

"Is that dad's shirt? And uh- do you mind wearing a pair of pants?" Laura mumbled, patting herself down. She wondered how drained she actually looked.

"Yes and no, I'm not wearing pants. That's the point of this shirt, some kind of weird protest. I have no idea why dad has it."

"What do you want?"

"I was just wondering when mom and dad will be back from the swimming pool?"

Laura shrugged. She didn't even know her parents were at the swimming pool, her dad was probably swimming for another local competition and her mother would be cheering him on.

"What time is it?"

"8:43, it's still light out though."

"They'll probably be back by 9-"Laura was interrupted by a loud growl coming out of Jasper's stomach. It seemed logical he was hungry, after all they hadn't eaten dinner but Laura had feasted on Doritos and Doritos only. "If you're hungry I can make you dinner. Pasta or something."

"No, I can make it for myself. Thanks though." Jasper tightened his lips and nodded then slowly closed the door. His steps slowly faded to his room next door. Laura walked over to the chair in front of her desk and sat down, she began spinning aimlessly and getting dizzy when suddenly a loud shout and a thump came from down the hall. Laura shot up and waited for any sign of life, what if Jasper had hurt himself?

"Laura?" A shout came from down the hall, it was Jasper's voice with a hint of concern in it. "You might want to come see this." He shouted. Laura stood out of her chair and rolled her eyes, grabbing open her door and rushing down the hall.

"I told you not to try to reach the top shelf on a wobbly chair again. It's dangerous-"Laura stopped straight in her tracks when she looked up. There in front of her was Jasper lying on the ground grabbing at a package of instant pesto pasta, adjusting his glasses and what do you know, wearing pants. But it wasn't that which made her mouth drop, it was the floating people in front of him. There was a blonde haired man with glasses and a brown haired lady grasping at him and holding on for dear life, besides them, there was a boy with dark brown hair and a grin on his face and a girl with long brown hair and a dull face. They both looked about fifteen. They were all floating casually.

Laura screamed.

She hoped afterwards that was the rational thing to do, but obviously it wasn't. But isn't that the natural reaction? You normally don't see a floating family in your kitchen every day, let alone floating people.

The girl scowled and the dark brown haired boy's smile dropped to the floor.

"Dad, I think we might be in the wrong place." The dark brown hair boy mumbled, staring down at Laura and Jasper. At least Jasper was wearing pants.

The blonde man continued to float as did his family and replied. "Definitely not, Percy gave me the specific address, which was a _really_ dangerous thing to do." He said with a fatherly tone in his voice at the ending. "This was it."

Laura shivered at the mention of her father's name. How did these people know him? Of course, they could have the wrong Percy.

The dark brown haired boy was floating over towards Laura and Jasper but he was biting his lip while doing so as if he was unsure of his every movement, suddenly he let out a yelp and flipped over in a 360 degree flip but before she knew it, his feet kicked her face and she flipped as well and fell onto the ground.

"Oh gods. I'm so sorry-"He said, looking alarmed, Laura's vision was spinning and she was seeing double of the boy who was floating above her.

"At any rate, can we please stop floating?" The woman begged, still grappling at the blonde man. "It's giving me major anxiety issues."

"Alright-"The blonde man laughed. "Alright Pipes."

The family all landed simultaneously as if they'd practiced landing in people's kitchens before. They'd patted themselves down and then the woman apologized.

"I'm really sorry about this and I'm about to take a shot in the dark here, but is your father by any chance Percy Jackson?"

Another shiver went down Laura's spine. It was her father's name. She had no words and was frozen so all she could do was nod.

"Then we're in the right home, Jason." She mumbled behind her. "Is your dad or your mom home?" She said with a smile. "We were meant to meet up today for important reasons." She added. When she smiled she lit up the room, she was strikingly beautiful.

Laura shook her head as a no, as if right on cue, there was a sound of the key clinking through the door and then it was open. Her mom and dad were standing there laughing about something, her mom carried a bag and her dad wore a wet towel around his shoulders.

"I mean I could have and _should_ have beaten him, but we've been at each other's throats for so long so I decided to let him win-"Laura's dad stopped and stared up and down at the people in the kitchen and past the living room.

"Jason, Piper!" He exclaimed with a smile on his face and with only his bathing suit on, ran past the couch and dove into their arms. They all were smiling and looking teary-eyed. It made Laura uncomfortable that her father was welcoming these people into their home, but it must be people he knew, still, Laura was counting on her mother to be the sane one yet again. However, she dropped the bag and joined the group hug.

"Oh my gods, it's been such a long time. When we flew in at first, your kids looked so scared and for whatever reason, we'd gotten scared we'd flown into some mortal's apartment." The woman, Piper, said.

"Well – we weren't expecting you." Laura's mother said, shaking her head. The blonde man furrowed his brow.

"You weren't? I swear I told Percy that we were coming, we'd been in contact with Hazel and Frank as well as Leo and Nico so-"

Percy let out a small laugh. "Yeah, we were actually expecting them, I just totally forgot about that." He winced, Laura's mom scowled.

"You could have told me, then we wouldn't have gone to the pool."

"Nah, Annabeth, don't worry about it." The blonde man pulled a lopsided smile. "We just shouldn't spend too much time catching up now, Percy knows about this, and I'm assuming he didn't tell you anything but we're decided to spend the summer with our kids at camp."

"We are? We meaning who?"

"All of us, Annabeth. Chiron finally said it would be okay, so we took it to our advantage and decided to head over and reunite. We thought it was time. Hazel and Frank are going to be there, Leo lives in camp and Nico is coming." Piper exclaimed.

"How did I not know any of this?"

"I- I forgot to tell you." Percy muttered sheepishly. "But on the bright side, Laura and Jasper finally get to learn about who they really are. Isn't that what's most important?"

Laura rolled her eyes at the slow tactic her father used to protect himself against any harm. Still, questions rumbled in her head, what camp? Who they were? What was her dad talking about? Aside from the utter confusion, Laura looked to the side to see the dark brown haired boy wincing. When he noticed Laura staring back at him, he stopped and began to approach her. He was fair-looking, with the soft hair and sweet puppy-dog brown eyes and a cute little grin always pasted on his face. He opened his mouth and let out an apology.

"I'm sorry for kicking you in the face," He winced. "It's bruising already, and I feel really bad that was the first impression I gave off. I mean – god, your dad is _the_ Percy Jackson and I kicked his daughter in the face." He laughed nervously. Laura self-consciously patted down her chin and did feel a bruise, whilst being confused she had completely forgotten that this boy had 360 degree kicked her face.

"It's okay." Laura said uncomfortably.

"I'm Tom." He said, pushing his right hand out and Laura hesitated and took it nevertheless.

"Laura." She said, feeling awkward at the weird sensation she was getting from shaking hands. She'd forgotten the last time she'd shaken hands with someone, it was probably someone old. After moments of awkwardness, they let go of each other's hands. Tom was looking at Percy, Laura's dad with some sort of admiration, it gave her the chills. Laura felt _someone_ in this room was going crazy and hopefully it wasn't her.

Without notice, Jasper walked up to her and sniffled. "Do you have any idea what's going on?" He shivered. Laura shook her head.

"No idea-"Laura was stopped.

"Thomas, Lia. You haven't met the Jackson's before, what do you say?" Piper asked in a patronizing tone, the two droned a hello and Laura and Jasper droned a hello back.

"It really is nice to see you though, and your kids. Man, they look just like you. I mean, in a weird way. Laura and Jasper right?" The blonde man squinted while looking at them.

Percy nodded. "Yes sir. That'll be my kids."

"So, who got the water powers and who got the killer smarts?" Piper asked, an excited look on her face. Laura turned to her mother and father questioning what they meant and her parents looked equally nervous.

"Piper, we haven't- really told them about it yet. They weren't ready."

"Tell us what?" Laura decided to take a shot and finally asked a question.

"Well-" Percy started. "Should we tell them?" He asked Annabeth as she replied with a nod and a sigh.

"I mean there's so many things that are inexplicable, Jason's family flying into the kitchen and well, they're going to need to go to camp _really_ soon, like two hours soon so there's no better time than now." She said.

Laura grabbed at her sides and frowned, what was wrong? Her parents had never looked so dead serious. Her father opened his mouth and began to speak.

"Me and your mother," He paused, hesitating.

Laura examined in that short second that her father was just in a swimming suit. Still. The suspense was going to give Laura an allergic reaction and she'd die from anaphylactic shock before her dad could finish. Her father finally decided to finish.

"Are demigods."

* * *

 ** _A/N: I'm here to say, sorry for the slow start, but I swear it'll be quick moving once I get the introductions down. Hope you enjoyed._** (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧


	2. II - Jasper

➝ _I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **II**

 **JASPER**

Jasper felt like he had just been served a bowl of cereal with water. Confused. His parents are demigods? If Jasper had heard right, his father had just announced that they're beings that are half-human and half-god born of great and divine power. This was impossible, since demigods were mythical beings as were the Greek gods and didn't exist. At least, Jasper thought so. He had two choices that he could think of as to why this was happening, either his parents were going to go a long way to pull his leg or his father was telling the truth.

Jasper's mother's face scrunched up and her nose crinkled as if she'd just smelled something rotten. She grabbed his dad's shoulder and shook her head.

"You know Percy, you could afford to be a little less obvious." She said. Jasper must have looked as confused and intrigued as he felt because his dad, Percy, nodded at him as if to notion him to start talking. Jasper had so many questions, most of which questioned his father's motives. Of course the fact that they were demigods didn't seem so far-fetched once past the fact that a family had flown into their kitchen earlier.

Jasper grappled at his sides and let out a nervous laugh, everyone turned to look at him with alert and confused looks.

"That's impossible dad, first off gods don't exist. They're myths. Secondly, _if_ the gods were alive today why would they go around having kids with humans? They have better things to do, maybe like kill off the entire human race. Lastly, if you're trying to play a prank, you'd have to come up with better material." Jasper said, rattling off different facts. After finishing, he crossed his arms and sniffled. His dad was about to say something, but closed his mouth. Of course in times like these, Jasper's mom would always talk for his dad.

"Jasper, do you really think their habits have changed over the past millennia or so? I mean, you've read the myth book we gave you when you and Laura were younger. There were so many demigods, Hercules, Achilles and well, there's nothing more that I can _say_ to prove it to you. You'd have to see camp." Annabeth said, letting go of Jasper's shoulders. Jasper shivered at the lasting feeling of his mother's hands on his shoulders.

Jasper swallowed several retorts. He didn't like being ridiculed like this. But by the looks on his parent's faces, they weren't joking. His dad was pulling a face and his mom looked extremely stressed. Jasper shook his head and when he was about to speak again, Laura interrupted him.

"If you really are demigods, then – then who are _your_ parents?" Laura asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, my father is Poseidon." Jasper's dad said, putting his hand to his chest and finishing his statement gingerly.

"My mother is Athena." Annabeth nodded in a matter-of-factly manner. "Your grandparents – your mortal grandparents are aware of this as well. They were, after all, the ones who had a child with a god."

Poseidon and Athena are two very powerful gods, both of the Olympian spectrum. If what his parents said was true, they were two very powerful people. Jasper felt his face go red at the thought of his parents being so, _so interesting_. To be frank, they'd been _too_ normal all his life.

The man with blonde hair, Jason, let out a heavy breath and shook his head, snapping Jasper out of his thoughts.

"Gods Percy, I honestly thought a water pipe would burst or something. I mean when James found out, he caused a huge city power outage." Jason shook his head. Percy's eyes widened and he cleared his throat.

"Well – then what does that make us?" Jasper asked, he felt a little awkward that there was a whole family observing this conversation.

"You and Laura are what we'd call – Legacies. A possible power inheritance of the gods. In this case, there's over a 150% chance you'll inherit our powers. Normally, legacies don't but –"

"Annabeth." Percy stopped her from babbling on. So, Jasper and Laura were Legacies. But they had over a 150% chance that they'd inherit power according to their mother, who apparently was a daughter of Athena. But then, who would get what? Poseidon was the god of the seas and Athena was the goddess of wisdom, there would either be a power split or a dead even dividing.

"Don't worry about it. Your powers will come to you eventually if they already haven't. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out once we get to camp." The dark blonde haired boy nodded with a smile on his face.

"This is all really disorienting." Laura shook her head as if something was on it. "Are you guys' demigods or legacies?" She asked the two kids whom earlier flew into their kitchen.

"We're legacies. Our parents are the demigods, just like your mom and dad." The brown haired girl said blandly as if she couldn't care less.

"Well – our parents have different godly parents though. Like my mother is a daughter of Aphrodite and my father is a son of Zeus."

"It's Jupiter, Tom." The blonde man said, correcting the dark brown haired boy, who was apparently named Tom.

Jasper examined the two adults, the woman was indeed quite beautiful. With twisting nearly kaleidoscope eyes and a slim body, despite her hair being messy, it still shined and despite her lack of detail in clothing, she still looked great. On the other hand, Jason had electric blue eyes that gave one a bit of a shock at first and he wore a small smile, glasses and had a scar on the corner of his lip. Unlike the lady, he didn't give off much of any obvious aura. He quickly glanced at their kids, the girl glowed with uncertainty and she had a nervous look on her face, her eyes were a soft-stony blue and her hair was a regular brown, she wore a plain sweatshirt and jeans and was carrying a side bag, but she still seemed _really_ pretty. The boy, Tom, was smiling, _again_ , and had dark blonde hair with eyes much like his mother's, a color that Jasper couldn't put his finger on, he didn't glow like his sister, much less seem pretty.

"Just to be clear – we are talking about the Greek gods right? I just assumed since demigods were often used in their myths but-" Jasper asked.

"There are Roman gods as well but we're not going to load that on you now – your father and I are both Greek. Yes." Jasper's mom replied.

Jason took a glance at the watch on his wrist and twisted his lips. Jasper glanced up at a clock on the wall, it was already 11PM. His stomach let out an involuntary growl. He still hadn't eaten any dinner yet. Laura let out a small laugh from behind, Jasper whipped around and scowled at her. He didn't need to be embarrassed even more.

"I know it's a lot to take in. It's basically discovering a whole new world, but you'll get used to it. I promise. It'll be even easier, since you'll get to go to camp." Jasper's dad said as he grabbed a shirt from the bag on the ground and pulled it on.

It reminded Jasper that he was wearing a really weird shirt, which was his dad's. He suddenly felt self-conscious, he was also wearing his glasses.

"Talking about camp – Percy, it'd be great if we could leave soon. It's really not a good idea for too many demigods and legacies to be in one tiny apartment for too long." The pretty woman said, worriedly. Jasper's dad nodded and faced Jasper and Laura.

"You two – pack everything you would as if you're going on a vacation. Lots of clothes, some snacks, anything else."

"But dad- we've never been on a vacation." Laura argued.

"There's a first for everything." Their father shook his head and shooed them away, he seemed to suddenly be in a bit of a hurry. Jasper turned and began to walk down the hall when he was stopped by a hand on his arm.

"Wait up." A voice said, Jasper looked behind him to see the brown haired girl behind him. She let go of Jasper's arm and walked beside him. "My parent's wanted me to go and help you." She said and gave Jasper a tight smile.

"Oh. Yeah, that'd be nice, thanks." Jasper gave a smile back and opened the door to his room. Which was actually quite neat. He dashed to his bed and poked underneath for his backpack. When he pulled it out and set it on the bed he saw there were t-shirts and shorts already there.

"I took the liberty of getting started. Sorry." The girl mumbled. Jasper felt his face going red, feeling awkward that a girl had just rummaged through his drawers. At least not his underwear drawer. Either he had been looking for his backpack for a _really_ long time or this girl could really pack.

"No, thanks." Jasper replied. "I'm Jasper." He said and stuck out his hand for her boy to shake. The girl looked up from her feet and looked at Jasper's hand as if it was poisoned or there was something gross on it, but there wasn't, Jasper had checked. She gingerly took Jasper's hand and looked back down at her feet.

"I'm Lia." Lia's face was focused merely on her converse shoes, which weren't as interesting as they seemed. Jasper stopped shaking Lia's hand and began to shove shirts and pants into his backpack, he grabbed underwear, a book and his phone. Jasper decided to change into a decent white t-shirt that read ' _A Taco Titan'_ and a grey hoodie over with some jeans. Jasper patted himself down and slung the backpack over his shoulders.

Making eye contact with Lia, they had a silent conversation and both walked out of Jasper's room. Jasper walked down the hall to see Laura and Tom already standing there, Laura looking frazzled, as if she couldn't believe it.

Jasper couldn't believe it either. But, if this was a practical joke, for once, he'd follow along, though at the bottom of his heart he felt a string tugging, as if inside he truly knew it wasn't a joke. When Jasper got to the mob in his house, the adults all nodded at each other, as if some kind of cult sign.

"Okay, you guys are all set?"

Jasper and Laura nodded together.

"What about you guys?" Laura asked, referring to their mother and father.

"We packed a couple of things in this – "Their mother patted a small backpack on their dad. "Little backpack."

"Do you guys by any chance have a car?" Jason gritted his teeth. "We flew in, so we made a bit of an assumption you had a car that could fit all of us."

That was a heavy assumption he had made.

Jasper's mother looked upset for a second but then she nodded. "Yeah, we have a car. It's actually a van, so it should be able to fit most of you. We might have to illegally fit some people in there but we don't really have time to spare."

"Alright." Piper, the pretty lady nodded. "Come on, let's go." She nodded to Lia and Tom, they picked up small bags that Jasper hadn't noticed before. Jasper and Laura were forced to leave their apartment a couple moments later, soon everyone was out the door in a tiny hallway. Jasper's dad fumbled with his keys and locked the door.

They all waited in front of the elevator for what seemed like hours, people began tapping feet and whistling. Finally, the elevator dinged and the doors opened only to reveal the elderly next door neighbor, Mr. Brittles. His name reminded Jasper of a cat name, which Jasper assumed the man had several cats.

"Good evening, Jackson's." He said, hobbling by. Jasper's parents waved and Jasper muttered a small hello. God, this was awkward. Once the man was out of the perimeters, all 8 people shoved themselves into the elevator and Jasper pressed the button to the parking lot. It was a quiet ride aside from the elevator music.

Once they finally got to P2, the second parking lot level, they all rushed out of the elevator and walked out into the parking lot. Jasper's dad rushed to the car first and started it up, his mother told everyone to keep their bags on and pushed the kids into the seats with seatbelts first. Jasper sat down and pulled a face at the uncomfortable feeling of the backpack behind him while sitting down. However, there wasn't time to think or adjust because Lia and Tom's parents shoved themselves into the middle of the seats and Jasper's mom sat in a front seat.

"Everyone good to go?" She shouted, craning her neck and trying to get a good head count. Everyone shouted a 'yep' in reply.

Jasper adjusted his glasses, he felt the car engine start beneath him, it let out a small rumble and they began driving away.


	3. III - Lia

_→ I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **III**

 **LIA**

Lia was tired, uncomfortable and frankly, she felt really awkward. When her parents had announced they were going to fly over to New York to meet their old friends, then head over to Camp Half-Blood, she wasn't exactly thrilled, but rather than being thrilled at this very moment, she just felt _really_ uncomfortable and she couldn't place why. It was probably due to the fact that she was in the same car as ' _The_ Percy Jackson' as James would keep saying, Percy wasn't exactly what Lia was expecting, shirtless or not.

The Jackson's weren't exactly what she was expecting either. What _was_ Lia expecting? Lia glanced to her right and saw Laura Jackson, she had dark brown hair down to her chest that smelled like sea salt, her eyes were a perfect mix between grey and green and she kept frowning, smiling, and looking like she was about to cry, as if going through all 5 stages of grief at once. Back at their apartment, Lia had examined her posture, which she held high, she was of average height but didn't look very strong and she gave off a 'chill' aura, except when she wasn't. Which was now. Lia was pretty sure she was hyperventilating.

To Lia's left was Jasper, he was staring out the window with his chin resting on his hand and his eyes which were of an intense grey color kept moving as they looked at the surroundings outside. His hair was blonde and curly and looked like a mop on his head, he wore thick black rimmed glasses which he kept fiddling with and frowning at. He reminded Lia of Andrew, a boy he had met in the 3rd grade who had been the nerd of the class.

She felt her palms go sweaty from the heat and the lack of space in the car, the van had 6 seats and his parents weren't in any and they were squished up in the middle of the car where people normally would step to get to the seats and despite being an adult, Percy Jackson didn't hold the title of 'World's Best Driver' like his bumper sticker would suggest. Every two minutes, there would be a reason to stop suddenly and it would send people lurching forward. Annabeth Jackson would tut every time or yell his name in distress.

Lia knew the ride from New York to Long Island South would take about 2 hours and 30 minutes and by checking her watch, she knew exactly two hours had passed without any trouble. But she could only cross her fingers and hope for the best, it wasn't exactly safe to have this many people with godly blood in their veins in one rugged van.

"What's camp like?" Jasper said, turning stiffly to face Lia with the backpack on his back. He could have taken it off but it seemed as if he didn't want to. Lia shrugged. She hadn't meant to be so bland or careless but it came off that way.

"I've been only once, when I was about 3, so there isn't much I can remember." Lia mumbled, crossing her legs on the seat. Jasper nodded.

"Where's it located?"

This boy _really_ liked to ask questions, didn't he? Though Lia didn't quite blame him. Lia had assumed the Jackson's knew that they were of godly heritage, but apparently they didn't and Lia had been there when they'd found out, which wasn't pleasant. It felt like déjà vu when Tom and Lia themselves had found out. Except Tom gave a blackout while Lia did the same as Jasper did, question her parents sanity.

"It's on Long Island, up in Montauk. I think – "Lia stopped due to the fact that she was being choked by her own seat belt as the car paused again. Lia hoped Percy Jackson fought better than he drove, which was probably true.

"Hm." Jasper replied and went back to staring out the window at the trees that quickly passed by, it was quite early in the morning, 1:43 AM to be exact according to Lia's watch. Lia could spare a couple minutes to fall asleep, after all she was _exhausted_ , and riding air currents wasn't an easy job. Lia felt her eyes flutter close like a butterfly and she was soon dozing off.

A voice interrupted her good sleep, it was hoarse, husky, and yet, somehow clear.

" _Ah,"_ the voice let out. " _I have waited for this moment. To finally have enough power to speak, Lia Grace."_ It mumbled sleepily. Lia didn't like the sound of this voice. Not at all.

" _I can sense your fear, Lia. But do not fear me – I can understand you. When the time comes, you will know what I speak of, you will make the right choice."_ The voice whispered, almost meekly. Lia didn't know what the voice meant but she couldn't think of anything.

" _The mother may have been weakened but it is not over, the gods reign will fail and all will perish if nothing is to be done. She will return, as will-"_

Lia swore she heard a snore.

" _As will I, and I have chosen you. My child, as you are much more powerful than you believe and that others believe. I can see how strong you really are. When the keys go missing, you will find them, but follow my orders and live, don't and cease to exist. You are one of the firsts. Lia Grace."_

Lia had _no_ idea what this man, as she could only assume, was talking about, he was speaking some mumbo jumbo that made no sense. All scattered and mystic words that went together but didn't feel anything but cryptic. God, Lia hated cryptic people. She found her voice in her mind.

" _Who are you? What do you want? What are you talking about?"_ Lia's voice rang in her own mind, the dream was blank and dark. There was a laugh, a loud, echoing, and empty laugh. Lia could almost imagine the smile on this person's face at the questions.

" _You have great bravery to ask a sleepy deity those questions."_ The voice mumbled. Lia heard his subconscious snorting at the name. Sleep deity. " _But those answers don't come easy, or else all would go well for your soon to be enemies."_

" _What do you mean I'm one of the firsts?"_ Her voice squeaked at the end, as if to emphasize that she was frightened.

" _You, Lia Grace, will be one of the first to rise to my side. One of the first to become part of the new world, while the others become part of the old and the under."_

There was a loud, but weak cackle and the sound of lightning and thunder clashed.

" _I don't know who you are, how am I supposed to be part of your side?"_

" _You will find out soon enough. Time will come."_ The voice laughed again as if he had said something clever. " _Until much later, Lia Grace. Oh, and do watch out of the herd of flesh-eating horses that come your way. This is just to test if I have chosen you correctly."_

Another imaginary smile.

" _Oh, of course, and to kill the others, well, most of them. There are few that we need, but that'll come later."_

Lia awoke with a start and screamed "Flesh-eating horses!" she was blinded for two seconds and then her vision began to clear up and she saw the dark, silently awkward car, nothing but the sound of humming from the car was present. Lia felt his face go red. Jasper snorted.

"What?"

"N-nothing." Lia sighed and ran her hands through her hair, she felt her body pulsing with heat, it was like her body was becoming a heat beacon. Hot-cold, hot-cold. When she looked to the back, she saw his family looking at him with questionable looks. Tom looked amused, while her father looked confused and her mother looked concerned.

Whatever just happened, well, Lia could say had _never_ happened before. Not once in her life, at least, not that she could remember. She was sure it was just a dream, but the voice was still alive in her head, as if it was little and floating around in his ear and playing trampoline on his brain.

When Lia looked out the window, she could see it was still dark outside, trees passed by and she could see part of the sea through the trees. The car lurched and at the same time, a bolt of lightning flashed and the sound nearly killed Lia's eardrums, it flashed so close to the car, it gave her anxiety. Lightning didn't flash this close unless it needed to.

Lia cursed his grandfather under his breath. He was always getting angry, either that or it was her dad or Tom, but the likelihood of that happening right now was low.

"Percy –"

"We're almost there." He mumbled, grabbing onto the steering wheel and then, he stepped on it and the car began rushing forwards and zoomed quickly past the empty highway. The time surprised Lia, it was 2:05. Her sleep had been much longer than it had felt. It gave her shivers to think about the voice again.

 _Herd of flesh-eating horses._

Lia had never heard of flesh-eating horses, but they didn't sound so friendly. As the name implied, they probably ate flesh. Mortal flesh. Or, demigod flesh? Legacy flesh. Any flesh. Lia didn't like the sound of that. She flipped her hand to her right side to check if her belt was there and if her knife set was there as well. Sure enough it was. Lia yawned and shook off the terrible feeling she had, when she closed her tired eyes again, the car lurched _again._

Lia was getting tired of Percy Jackson's horrible driving.

"For god's sakes, Percy – " Lia heard Annabeth. She could hear the frustration radiating from her voice.

"It wasn't me." He said.

"What do you mean it wasn't you?"

There was a sudden loud bumping noise and the car lurched forward again. Lia's stomach was sinking, but she kept his eyes closed. Maybe it was another dream.

"What was that?" Laura asked, loudly.

Suddenly Lia felt her body being disoriented and her head hurt for the shortest moment and then loud shattering noises as well as scraping ones all over. It wouldn't stop. Lia was now afraid to open her eyes. When she did she saw disaster. The car was flipped upside down, the top of it was squished so it was pointing up like a damn mountain and two doors were open. There was a smoking smell and everyone was either flipped upside down and in their seats or on the ground, avoiding shattered glass.

Lia's stomach was 500 feet beneath the ground. She was pretty sure it wasn't even with her anymore. She felt sick. Her head hurt and she was upside down.

There was a sudden bump and the car flipped again, Lia watched her vision flip around as did the car, she felt herself falling out of her seat and her hands landed flat into a bunch of broken glass.

It was silent for a moment when the car was upright.

"Is everyone alright?" Lia heard her mother speak. Small mumbles fluttered across the car.

"We need to get out of here. Right now." Annabeth spoke, her voice was stern this time. Not distressed, her face looked dark, or maybe it was the moonlight streaking across her face. She scowled. Lia turned to her right to see Laura looking shaken up and slowly standing up.

Lia turned to her left side just to make sure and was left to see it was empty. She could feel her face turning white, she had bad feelings and bad ones only.

"Uh oh." Percy Jackson said. "I can hear-"

Several loud whinnies and neighs were heard and Lia froze. There were horses, and Lia didn't need Percy Jackson to hear them, because it was loud and clear what the whinnies meant. It meant dinner time.

* * *

 **A/N:** _ **I really enjoyed writing this chapter, especially the dream, despite being cryptically obvious. As always, thanks for reading ≧◡≦ and keep an eye out for the next chapter.**_


	4. IV - Thomas

➝ _I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **IV**

 **THOMAS**

Prior to this day, Thomas had never once heard of flesh-eating horses more or less seen them. But they sure as hell were annoying. Honestly, Thomas had never met creatures so irritating before, he'd seen a handful before, but they'd never just keep coming in waves. As soon as Thomas had successfully dodged a bite and had managed to kill one, another would appear and it was pretty hard to kill them while trying to locate exactly where he was and attempting to head to camp.

Thomas felt a small nip at his left arm and he whipped around to be face to face to a white horse with sharp teeth aiming for Thomas's arm. He gripped his sword tightly and grit his teeth, hoping that this would finally be the last one he'd have to kill, and swung hard to his left, decapitating the horse. Thomas shivered at the sight before it turned into gold dust.

Looking to his side, Thomas saw a mess of people. While Thomas's parents and Percy Jackson and Annabeth Jackson were smoothly killing the horses much like Lia and Thomas had been, Laura and Jasper looked panicked and terrified. Thomas still couldn't believe that they hadn't known about their heritage prior to a couple hours ago. Jasper had nearly been eaten alive and Laura had to tend to him.

"They just keep coming, we should go or we're never going to get to camp." Thomas's mother yelled across the clearing. "It's not safe to have everyone out here, Laura and Jasper are unarmed and don't know how to fight either." She added.

Thomas glanced over to Lia who was pulling out a knife from the side of a black horse and watching it turn into powder. Lia's neck snapped up and she frowned, she began running up to Laura and Jasper.

"Heads up!" She shouted and pushed Laura and Jasper aside, Thomas felt his legs working underneath him, and he followed Lia and began whacking at the horse like it was a game of whack-a-mole. Within seconds, the horse was dust and Lia and Thomas were both out of breath. Laura and Jasper looked up at them in awe.

"Let's go – c'mon kids." Percy Jackson mumbled, running over with his sword in hand and furrowed eyebrows. "Camp's not that far, but it'll be hard to fight _and_ find our way."

Thomas nodded and offered his hand to Laura, Laura gingerly grabbed it and stood up. She looked down at her feet for a brief second and then began to follow the mob of people running ahead of her, Thomas did the same. He would admit, running with a sword wasn't the brightest idea, especially one made of Imperial Gold. He, along with the group of people, passed through groups of trees and bushes.

Thomas's thoughts began to wander off, he wished that they still had a car to drive in. His legs were getting tired already. Too bad they had to do a 360 flip and nearly die due to the horses. Despite killing so many, there were still whinnies behind them, though significantly less. Thomas began to pick up the pace and ran faster, he was falling behind the group, despite being fast. Soon, they had approached a hill surrounded by trees and a faint light was visible in the dark morning.

Suddenly, Thomas felt himself flying forward and his whole face began to hurt, he could taste dirt in his mouth. As he looked up, he felt himself let out a groan and sit up, his clothes were dirty and his sword was about arm's reach away from him. Thomas made a grab for his sword and held onto it, but no one was around, all the others were little spots on the hill. What had he even tripped on? Thomas glanced down at his feet and saw a tree root in the ground, he cursed under his breath and began to jog up the hill when he heard a heavy stomp from behind him.

He didn't want to look, so instead he began to bolt up the hill, halfway up the hill was everyone else, but they soon paused as if finally noticing Thomas's absence.

Thomas, out of instinct slashed behind him and heard a whinny, he took in a deep breath while running, which hurt his lungs and then breathed out, running up the hill as fast as he could.

He wished people would have paid attention when Lia shouted about the flesh-eating horses in the car. That might have saved them some trouble. At least camp was a couple dashes away from him, Lia was running down the hill towards him with a troubled face.

"I-I tripped." Thomas said, with breaths in between. Lia shook her head.

"You're always tripping." She mumbled. "Now, hurry up or we'll all get killed." She said, and pulled out a knife from her side and threw it across. Thomas looked behind him and winced as he watched it nail a horse in the neck, it sounded of troubled breathing for a moment and it turned to dust. He hoped it was the last of the horses, since he heard no angry stomps or whinnies right now.

"Are you okay?" Piper, Thomas's mother asked with worry as she scanned him from head to toe to check for any visible wounds.

"I'm okay. I just tripped."

She let out a sigh of distress. "I don't get why you're so clumsy, Tom."

Thomas wasn't paying attention to his mom, he glanced up in awe to the white columns with torches on either side lighting up the lettering above it, which began to arrange themselves to Thomas's eyes. It read "CAMP HALF BLOOD". There were vines crawling up the columns and bushes all around. He hadn't noticed, but people began to step through the columns, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Jackson, Thomas's father and Jasper Jackson seemed to be missing.

"We should get inside." Thomas's mother said and ushered Lia, Laura and Thomas towards the columns. "Just step inside." She said, directing her arms towards the columns. Laura anxiously walked through.

Before walking through, Thomas tightened his grip on his sword and flipped it straight up and when it landed in his hand, it turned into a gold medallion the side of a large guitar pick and it had a hole in the top of it with a string going through. Thomas pulled it over his head and tucked the medallion into his shirt and shivered at the cool material.

Thomas gingerly stepped through the columns and he felt a shiver down his spine. He was standing on marble tiles and in the distance he could see a lake. There were several buildings surrounding the hill he stood upon and there weren't many people around except people who seemed to patrol the camp premises, who were giving the group a dirty look.

Thomas caught his breathing and made it steady, he glanced to his side and saw Laura and Jasper looking around at the camp as equally in awe as he was seconds ago. Even Lia looked impressed. Thomas had been here before, but he didn't really remember it. He was about 5 when he had arrived and it was where he was given his sword. He didn't quite remember much more than that, but it still looked as beautiful as Thomas had felt about it.

"Welcome to Camp-Half Blood." Said Percy Jackson with a nostalgic look on his face, all the adults wore the same expression, one that was dreamy and longing. Lia rose an eyebrow when the creeping smile on her face dropped. Thomas turned his gaze over to what Lia was looking at.

There was a boy standing in front of them wearing a somewhat bright orange t-shirt with "Camp Half-Blood" on it and underneath was a symbol of a Pegasus. He wore dark pajama shorts with black and white stripes, much like a zebra. The boy had bright dark brown eyes and skin that was a light cocoa colour, he had wavy black hair and he looked very fit. On his back he carried a quiver and in his hands he carried a bow that glowed in the moonlight."

"Are you Percy Jackson?"


	5. V - Curtis

➝ _I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **V**

 **CURTIS**

"Are you Percy Jackson?" Curtis repeated himself. It had been a while since he'd asked the question, and no one had replied yet. He was pretty sure this messy black haired, middle aged man who carried a sword _was_ Percy Jackson, but he couldn't be too sure.

The man's eyes, which were glazed over, suddenly snapped back to life and he nodded.

Curtis had never met the Jackson family before, only heard of them and seen photos. So when he heard that they were going to finally meet, Curtis was expecting a proud, bright and strong looking family who were almost like superheroes. Instead, he found an absolutely tired looking family in front of him.

Curtis had never met the Grace family either, but he'd expected nearly the same as the Jackson's. And yet, both families looked like the life had been sucked out of them.

"Ah, Hi. I'm Curtis Zhang." Curtis introduced himself and forced a smile on his face, but inside he felt all muddled up, he never had so many eyes on him at once in his whole life. He was pretty sure he was going to start pooling sweat. He suddenly felt self-conscious, he was wearing his pajamas; a pair of black and white striped shorts and a Camp Half Blood shirt, and everyone else was wearing everyday clothing. Curtis could feel his face getting hot.

Curtis had no idea where to go from his introduction. He was told by his mom and dad to hang around the entrance of camp and to wait for two families and Curtis did, for the whole night, even through the early morning. A couple people had went in and out, and Curtis had embarrassingly asked them if they were Percy Jackson. He began to panic inside and started making noises, as if to start a sentence but didn't know what to say.

"W-welcome to Camp Half Blood." Curtis said loudly, he didn't quite know if he had the right to say that, as he'd only been here a couple times, but he went on anyways. "Can I ask – what happened out there?"

"There was an endless hoard of flesh eating horses." The blond man, who Curtis assumed was Jason Grace, said. Curtis shook his head.

"Flesh-eating horses?"

Jason shrugged as the rest of the group nodded. Curtis scanned the crowd, while the adults just looked pretty tired, the kids looked worried and fretful, especially a messy blond haired boy and a dark brown haired girl. They both wore the same expression, one of awe and worry, the blond boy however looked a little angrier than anything.

"I – I was instructed to bring you to our home. So," Curtis trailed off, he had no idea why he was being so formal, but that couldn't be helped. The people nodded and Curtis began walking across the patches of grass and down the slight hill, taking a quickly glance behind, he saw looks of both awe and nostalgia. Curtis smiled a little.

He liked looking at people's expressions. It had been a thing since he was a child. Despite being quite awkward and sheepish, he'd always paid attention to how people were feeling, even if they didn't show it quite well, eventually Curtis had gotten good at knowing people and reading them.

"It hasn't changed one bit." A very pretty looking lady said, her eyes sparkling. Curtis had heard of her, Piper Mclean, or Grace now, she was a daughter of Aphrodite and was a good friend of his parents.

"Well, except that part there – " Percy Jackson mumbled and pointed over to the several homes near the forest where the stables and the armory _used_ to be. In the past couple of years, Camp Half Blood had apparently made renovations to create a small living home area aside from the cabins and moved the armory and the stables to behind the climbing wall.

Curtis continued walking past the dark volleyball courts and the big house, once past the lake, Curtis's legs started to get tired. This camp wasn't bigger than Camp Jupiter, and yet the walk around, felt much longer. Curtis sighed as him, along with the group, _finally_ approached the home area. It was where his family was staying for the summer as well as the others. They did have different homes, but Curtis was still told to bring them all to his for now.

Each house was styled a little differently, all of them were made of wood and looked much like lanky cabins that were up to three stories tall. In total, Curtis had counted 22 houses and most were empty, despite it being the summer. None of the homes gave of a Greek vibe. As Curtis approached the largest house at the end, he turned back to make sure everyone was still standing behind him.

Sure enough, everyone was there. At least, he hoped, he had counted 8 people on the hill and there were 8 in front of him.

"This is new." A curly, blonde haired woman whispered to Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, as Curtis assumed. He'd been doing that a lot lately, _assuming_. Curtis grabbed the handle to the house and whipped the door open with a sudden force that scared even himself.

He'd opened the door to quite a dull situation. Curtis's younger sister, Emily was sitting on a chair with her legs hoisted up on a coffee table, her eyes looked tired and she had her hair up in a lanky ponytail. She was flipping through a book and had her glasses up on her head, her head slowly turned in almost a robotic fashion as she saw the tired group of people standing behind Curtis.

"I brought guests." Curtis announced. Emily shot up, put her glasses away on the table and patted herself down. She wore a pair of pajama shorts that were pink and white and a grey t-shirt, but she still looked neat and tidy. She wore a smile and walked up to the group of people.

"Come in." She said nicely. Curtis mentally hit himself on the back of the head, why didn't _he_ ask them to come inside?

"Em? Is it Curtis?" A voice came from the kitchen.

"Yep." Emily shouted back to the Kitchen. "He brought The Jackson's and Grace's." She added. Curtis winced as he heard a plate hit the ground.

"It's okay, we can clean it up later – just go." He heard his father whisper, and he watched as his mother and father usher themselves out of the kitchen with nostalgic and happy looks. His mother's hair was up in a frizzy ponytail and she wore an apron. She had been cooking for a while now, preparing so much food for breakfast. Curtis's dad looked bright and he wore a smile, he was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts.

"Oh my gods." Curtis's mother rushed up to the adults and opened her arms. They all let out a heavy breath and hugged each other. Curtis's father joined them as they all tightly grabbed at each other. They all let out a nervous and shaky laugh.

"It's been so long." Curtis's dad whispered. "It's so good to see you guys." He added. Curtis began to take of his quiver and bow and then placed them on the coffee table. He stared at the group of adults in front of him, all hugging and talking about how long it's been. They looked like an amazingly tight group. That being said, they _had_ been through so much together. It was amazing. Curtis would never dream to do more than spar with his sister.

When they finally pulled away, Curtis's mother began to speak. "Oh, we've got so much food, I'd figure you'd be hungry and – what happened to you guys?" She asked, staring at the rugged and dirty people.

"Ah, it wasn't much. Just a hoard of flesh-eating horses."

"I thought I told those guys to never eat flesh again…" Percy Jackson mumbled.

Curtis's mom shook her head. "Monsters are still at it," She paused, staring at the kids behind her. "Are these – oh my gods, they're so big."

"Who's who?" Curtis's dad questioned, Percy Jackson cleared his throat and pointed to the girl with dark brown hair and the boy with curly blond hair. They jumped.

"Those two are mine. On the left is Laura and on the right is Jasper." He said. The two children mumbled a small hello and shyly looked down at their feet. Curtis's mother said a hello back and turned her head to the tall dark blond haired boy and the brown haired girl.

"That's Lia and Thomas." Piper Grace spoke up. They did the same and wove an awkward hello, both having totally different reactions. The boy smiled and the girl frowned, then attempted a smile but it came out all wrecked.

"Well, what about your kids?" Jason Grace asked, a small grin on his face. Curtis's dad's face lit up like he'd been waiting for this moment for forever, he grabbed Curtis's shoulders and shook him.

"This is Curtis. He's the second oldest in the family, and this," he turned to Emily who blinked when he grabbed her shoulders. "Is Emily. She's the youngest."

"Where's Vira?" Curtis's mother asked with the slightest scowl on her face. She wiped her hands on her apron.

"I'm right –" A voice said, everyone's head turned to the stairs and Curtis spotted his older sister, Vira. She was wearing a grey sweatshirt and home shorts, her dark hair was in a messy bun, she carried a mug with a lemon and lime pattern on it. She froze when she took her last step and landed on the ground. "Were these the guests we were expecting?"

Curtis's mother nodded sharply and motioned her to rush over, Vira walked over, set her cup down on the coffee table and stood next to Curtis. She waved a small hello to the group of adults and sighed.

"And this is Vira. The oldest." Curtis's father said, ruffling Vira's hair. Vira laughed and pushed his hand off.

"Aw, you've got three." Piper Grace chortled as if Curtis and his siblings were cute little cats. "By the way, where are Nico and Leo?" She asked, staring up at Curtis's mother.

"Leo – "She paused. "He's downstairs in the work room, oh gods, he missed all of this, um – Em', could you get him?"

"You know I don't like going down there. It's too hot." Emily replied curtly.

"I'll go get him." Vira mumbled, stood up properly from leaning against the wall and shuffled over to behind the stairs, opening a trapdoor that revealed a ladder and a blast of heat came from underneath. Vira's hair went wild as she went down there.

"You have a workroom?"

"Leo built it." Curtis's father sheepishly said. A couple moments later, Leo and Vira came up, Leo had soot on his white button up shirt and had goggles on the top of his head. Vira was helping him up and out of the trapdoor. He stared up at the adults and his face broke out into a smile, he walked over and was greeted by hugs.

"Oh gods, I've already said this, but it's been _so_ long." Piper Grace whispered. Leo grabbed all of them and laughed.

"You guys haven't changed at all." He said, his eyes closed. When they pulled away, Jason Grace's stomach grumbled. He blushed.

"I haven't eaten in a while." He mumbled. Curtis's mother smiled.

"Don't worry about it – we've got you covered. Come on, into the kitchen." She said, beginning to walk away. Everyone began to follow but Jason Grace stopped.

"What about Nico? Shouldn't we wait for him?"

Vira made a noise and made a run for her mug, grabbing it, she turned around and began to walk back to the group. But, as if on cue, the door slapped open and hit Vira in the process. Curtis watched in horror as his sister fell face forward onto the wood floor and her tea spilled all over the floor and her shirt.

Curtis's head shot up to see who opened the door, and standing there was a boy with messy black hair, dark circles and tanned skin, he was wearing a long sleeve baseball shirt and jeans, and behind him was a man with messy black hair in a jacket and jeans. The boy staggered and tripped over and fell face forward partially onto Vira. He let out a groan and Vira's face was still in the puddle of tea that she had dropped earlier.

"Am I late?"


	6. VI - Felix

➝ _I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **VI**

 **FELIX**

Despite not meaning to loudly open the door and nearly break a girl's back, Felix had done so. And he had ended up on the ground, next to her. He groaned and shook his head, he sat up, looking to his side and taking a look at the girl. Her black hair was up in a messy bun and her eyes were a dark brown with a glint of gold in them. She wore a grey sweatshirt that was now stained with tea and a pair of shorts. Her legs were splayed out behind her. She turned around and scowled. Felix felt a shiver down his back. Her scowl was enough to make him feel threatened.

"Are you okay?" Felix asked, his voice cracking from a lack of use. He was surprised at the sound of his own voice. The girl managed to look even angrier.

"No." She said, her tone suggesting that he should help her. Felix could physically feel the anger radiating off of her. Felix looked up at his dad for help, his father however signaled him to sit up and help the girl. Felix stood up, patted himself down and offered a hand to the girl. She took it gingerly and stared at her feet, she got up and waved her glasses around.

"I might need a new back, thanks to _somebody._ " She said, directing herself towards Felix. Felix scowled. He was beginning to get irritated. Sure, he hadn't said sorry yet, but maybe she deserved getting hit in the back with a door.

"It's not like I _meant_ to hit you with a door. Maybe you should have just stayed clear of the way."

"Well I didn't know some rouge boy was going to come stampeding through there -" She stopped, wincing. A voice stopped both Felix and the girl from doing anymore arguing.

"Nico!" A blond haired man with glasses emerged from the crowd of people staring at the scene in front of them. He rushed up and hugged Felix's dad. Felix glanced in wonder as to _who_ this man exactly was. His dad didn't let just _anyone_ touch him like that. Turns out Felix was wrong. Every adult in the room stampeded like a wild buffalo hoard towards his dad and took turns wrapping arms around him. Felix watched his dad's scowl turn into a smile. That was something new.

A dark skinned woman emerged from the crowd. "Em', could you help Vira with her back? Curtis, clean up the mess." The woman pointed to two children.

The boy looked about Felix's age and had a military style haircut, he wore a 'Camp Half Blood' t-shirt and zebra patterned pajama shorts. He carried a sheepish aura around with him. The girl on the other hand carried a fierce expression and grabbed the girl next to Felix with aggression, she wore a grey t-shirt and pajama shorts, and her hair was in a little ponytail that waved around just as aggressively as she did. Felix rolled up his sleeves and patted himself down, he noticed a small wet spot on his pants that came from the spilled tea. He sighed. He didn't own many pairs of jeans.

"Everyone, this is Felix." Felix heard his father say.

Felix's ears perked up at the mention of his name and he whipped around to have _so_ many pairs of eyes staring at him. He began to feel flustered. He didn't understand all of these people, sure, it was good for his dad that he had kept all these friends, Felix knew his dad needed all the support he could get, but, Felix didn't really get the concept of friendship as well as normal people did.

Everyone stared at him in awe until finally someone broke the ice.

"He looks just like you." The dark-skinned woman nodded, she leaned in closer, close enough that Felix could feel her breathing and Felix shivered. He didn't really have a choice but to stay.

"Does he really?" Felix's father sheepishly asked with a small tone of pride. Felix often got this comment that he looked like his father, and he couldn't lie, he did. As the eyes trailed up and down him, Felix couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. Eventually, someone's stomach growled and the dark-skinned woman's eyes lit up.

"Oh, that's right. We were headed to the kitchen." She said, trailing off to the kitchen with a group behind her. "It's a good thing I cooked a lot." She'd added.

When the dark-skinned woman, whose name turned out to be Hazel, had said that she had cooked _a lot_ , she wasn't kidding. The table was drowning in food. Pancakes, French toast, eggs, bacon, and many other breakfast foods. Felix felt his own stomach grumble for moments. He _had_ been out, shadow-travelling for a while, he felt extremely tired. Thank god that Hazel had prepared breakfast.

Everyone sat down and hungrily began to jab at the food. The table must have been pretty long and big since it had managed to fit everyone, although a few mismatched chairs had to be added. Felix had the luck of being sat right across of the girl he had hit with the door, Vira. He stared at her, she laughed as a girl with dark black hair muttered something to her. Felix sighed, he wished he wasn't here. It was obvious that he would soon be isolated again. No one would bother talking to him after he'd hit Vira in the back with a door. It was bothersome to try to make friends, but he'd thought, for once he'd give it a shot. However, his confidence was faltering.

Felix jabbed at a slice of bacon and chewed it down within seconds. 30 minutes later, he had more than enough to eat. He sat back and let out a sigh, when he looked back up across from him, he saw that Vira was glancing at Felix, she jumped and turned back to the girl with black hair and mumbled something.

Earlier that week when his father had announced that they were leaving Toronto, which is where they were currently living, to go meet some of his old friends. Felix didn't expect much at all. He just assumed they were some mortals. But when they'd arrived at camp after some mismatched shadow travelling, Felix was utterly confused. Sure, he had heard from his dad that he had fought in the war with some friends, but Felix thought they were all dead. Apparently not. In fact they were all very alive and had managed to have their own children.

"Well, it wasn't _easy_ to get _both_ of you out of there. By myself. Without Festus." A voice snapped Felix out of his thoughts. He looked away from Vira and at the person who spoke. It was Leo Valdez, the famous mechanic and war hero. He sure was loud for someone so prestigious.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Piper Grace laughed, at this point, Felix was busy trying to remember who was who and he had hoped he had remembered her name properly. "I tried my best. Thank you though. For getting us out. I mean if it wasn't for you, me and Jason would be dead."

It had been like this for all of breakfast. The adults had been reminiscing and telling stories about their times in the war. Felix had only heard about this war, but people seemed to sugar coat it a lot more than it was supposed to be, even during these stories the fighting seemed light hearted, but Felix knew that fighting monsters wasn't any fun. Felix had spaced in and out of the stories as the adults spoke, he hoped this wasn't what the whole summer was to be like. Slowly, people sat up and started handing sticky, messy dishes down to the sink.

"Should I - ?" said Felix's father, Hazel shook her head.

"Don't worry about it. I'll take of the dishes, everyone should get some sleep. That way the kids can have energy for later."

There were mumbles in agreement. Felix didn't care what _later_ meant, he was just dying to get sleep. He could feel his body getting heavier with every step.

After saying some quick goodbyes, everyone dispersed and headed to their own designated 'homes'. Felix's was in fact quite small. But he supposed it was suiting for just him and his father. Wherever he had lived had always been quite small, but Felix never minded. At least, not often. It wasn't so much the fact that he minded living in somewhere small, but the fact that he didn't have a mom. Well, logically speaking, he did. But he'd never seen her, talked to her, he'd never even seen her.

He only knew her name and where she was. Sure, that was enough to go and find her himself. But Felix wasn't sure if he wanted to see her. After all, what if she didn't want to see him? It had been 14 years since she'd done so. Felix never really asked his dad about his mother, since most times when his dad talked about her, he'd get a look on his face that seemed more distant than usual.

He'd always talk about her like she was dead.

A bright light caused Felix to lose track of his thoughts and he covered his eyes with his hands. He looked around inside of the home. It was two floors and small like a townhouse, downstairs was a small living room that was fairly empty, a basic kitchen and upstairs were two bedrooms with a queen sized bed and a twin sized bed. Felix took the smaller one.

The room looked grey and dreary, since Felix didn't have any decorations. His father dropped a duffel bag in the room and told Felix to have a good sleep. Felix, however, didn't even bother to change out of his clothes. He was just too damn tired.

He fell into the bed and into the blankets and immediately began sleeping.

* * *

 _ **A/N: I apologize for the slightly boring chapter, but it's just to get used to the setting and the people. Soon the adventure begins. Hope you enjoyed!**_


	7. VII - Vira

➝ _I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **VII**

 **VIRA**

" _Little heroes, so meek, so weak."_ A loud, rather horrible, raspy sort of singing rang. " _Look at you now – powerless. I suppose you've just gotten._ _ **Old.**_ "

The voice seemed to be coming from a man, he was tall and quite muscular and had long dark hair – the color of the night sky. His skin was reflecting several different colors at once and turned out to become some sort of a peach tinted blue color.

" _Oh, you may laugh now – but soon, soon you shall be begging. Begging for your lives at my feet, at the feet of my wife – my children – you will beg, yes. But death will come to you, very,_ _ **very**_ _soon._ "

The man was sitting in a large seat, covered in swirled white marble and gold garnishes in different shapes, molding and moving around. It was sitting on top of a pedestal that was in the shape of a large, green-blue sphere. His hand was out and he carried a vision, it was the legendary seven all seated around a table, laughing, one was asleep.

" _You laugh now, but when time wakes from its slumber – when we –"A_ yawn escaped the man's mouth. " _When we_ _ **all**_ _wake from our slumbers, Olympus will_ _ **finally**_ _fall and the far too victorious will_ _ **lose**_ _."_ He emphasized on losing.

" _Father –"_

" _You know what I need you to do, and its master – don't call me_ _ **father**_ _."_

" _Y-yes. Master."_

" _Better. Now, grab your siblings won't you? Remember, scatter them. After all – it'll make the search harder."_ The man laughed. " _Your mother is nearly ready."_ He added sternly. The voices were getting less and less decipherable.

" _Revenge is coming, it tastes sweeter than ever and this time – yes – this time. We will win for sure."_ The now, slowly familiar laugh echoed.

Vira woke with a start, only to see her wooden ceiling. Her hands were grabbing at her blankets, sweaty as can be, as were her chest and neck. Her t-shirt was soaked in sweat and lucky enough, her shorts were not. But her mind was as alert as could be. She glanced to the side, where a window was – but it was still dark outside.

What did she just dream about? Who was the man in the weird floaty throne? Why did he have a vision of Vira's parents and her parent's friends?

Hoping to shake off the wretched feeling she had in her stomach, she closed her eyes and tried her best to fall back asleep.

* * *

Vira sucked at combat. Especially close combat, where she had to use a knife instead of an instrument or wrench. Give her one of those and she'd be able to knock out someone. Probably.

Vira gritted her teeth as she fell backwards, Laura knocking her off her feet. She was soaking in sweat. Vira hated this. Laura had only been training in sword fighting for the past two and a half weeks, as did her brother, and Laura already owned her own sword and was very skilled at it. Vira on the other hand was fighting with a knife, during the past two weeks, Lia had offered to teach her knife throwing and it was the only thing that Vira had successfully learned so far.

Laura yelled in victory as Vira fell on her head and undoubtedly, lost the battle. Of course, aside from being slightly unskilled, perhaps it may have been the muddled up thoughts in her head from the dream she had last night. The voices wouldn't leave her head, it troubled her. Vira's dad had always told her, if she'd ever had a bad dream, she could tell him. He also told her about how demigod's dreams were important at times, and it wouldn't be any less different for a close legacy.

So, why did Vira get the feeling she couldn't tell anyone?

Vira watched from the ground as Laura offered a hand. Vira gingerly took it and grinned.

"That was just luck."

"I'm sure it was." Laura mumbled, grasping her sword in one hand and helping Vira up with the other.

"Don't get cocky with me, newcomer." Vira mumbled, dusting herself off and leaned over to grab her knife. Laura had only recently found out she was of godly descent and was handling it pretty well, despite not being able to really use her powers for anything. She had discovered that she was very dominant within water and with water, she could control it very well and was really delighted to do so. Her brother Jasper on the other hand, didn't really show much interest in water and had been digging his noses in Greek Mythology books for a while.

"Hey, I still think I'm doing pretty good." Laura laughed. "I'm still new to this, but – it feels right." She nodded. Vira smiled.

"That's good. Feeling right is good." She mumbled, Laura and Vira headed towards the tiny hut set right outside the arena which carried rental weapons. As weird as it was, Vira had borrowed a knife. She nodded towards Autumn, a new daughter of Demeter, as a sign of thanks. Laura on the other hand compacted her sword into a Ptolemy coin and shoved it into her pocket. She had found it the first day she had visited the armoury and thought it was a regular coin, turning out to be a sword made of Celestial bronze.

The horn signaling that dinner was ready rang through the air. Laura and Vira glanced towards each other and began to walk towards the dining pavilion.

8 minutes later, they had arrive and dinner looked really, _really_ good. Probably because Vira had used up all of her energy sparring with Laura and hadn't had any lunch. She felt her face going red as her stomach let out a small grumble, hoping no one had heard that, she grabbed a paper plate and started throwing food onto it.

Laura took Vira's wrist and pulled her over towards an empty table, normally, everyone was arranged into cabins. But the legacies had taken to occupying their own table, it was a small one, and it was actually a spare plastic table, but it was good enough.

"Hey, what have you guys been doing all afternoon?" Laura asked the whole table, sighing as she sat down. She lifted her fork and began chewing down some salad. They all looked at her and began talking at once.

"Well, Lia and I went down to the stables." Emily said. At the same time, Curtis, Jasper, Thomas and Felix and began speaking.

"We went to the climbing wall – "Curtis started, but Felix cut him off.

"But there was no room for 4 more people so then _Mr. Brightside_ over there," Felix nodded his head to Thomas, who rolled his eyes. "Decides to head over to the arts and crafts area."

"Which was a complete disaster, I presume?" Lia looked out, from behind Vira, who moved back so people could see her. Felix grunted and lifted up his shirt that had paint splatters all over it. Vira snorted, almost choking on her meat.

"We were angry and – well, none of us are good at arts and crafts. In the end we just had to throw out the masterpieces we made." Felix sighed.

"What _did_ you make?" Laura narrowed her eyes, resting her head on her hand as she lifted her fork to her mouth again. The four boys' averted eye contact and all looked awkward.

"Nothing important." Thomas quickly said, a bunch of questioning pursued, and Vira however, found herself zoning out and continuously eating. She got lost in thought.

The dream she had last night wasn't a good sign. Vira knew that for sure, ever since she had dreamt it, she hadn't felt quite – right. Something was stirring and it made her _very_ worried. Especially since it seemed to mean trouble and trouble for people she cared about. But maybe, _just maybe_ , it was merely a dream. One that was completely useless.

But that was unlikely. Highly unlikely.

A voice snapped Vira out of her thoughts.

"Vira?"

"Hm?" She asked, blinking and adjusting her vision back to life. She glanced to Laura who, with furrowed eyebrows, asked if Vira was alright.

"Are you okay? You seem to be – "Laura hesitated. "You don't seem to be acting like your usual self today."

Vira cursed Laura for being perceptive. Even after only knowing Laura for two weeks, they had grown generally closer than most and had spent a lot of time together, she couldn't blame Laura for knowing that something was off.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Because you've been spacing out and – it feels like something's wrong." Laura said, sniffling from the cool summer night air. Vira shook her head and turned her worried look into a smile.

"I'm totally good." Vira said, putting her fork down onto her empty paper plate. She frowned. Vira's sinking feeling was worsening and she needed to talk to someone. Maybe it was time she questioned her dream with someone else.

"If you say so." Laura said, turning to speak with Felix. Vira stopped her.

"Actually. It's not." Vira let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Come with me. I need to talk to you in private."

Vira led Laura out of the dining hall and past the large bonfire, where campers were gathering, she stopped in front of the bathrooms. If she had knew there was a putrid stench coming from the girls bathroom, then she would have chosen a different place, but she didn't have the time.

"Look, last night I had a dream. But it wasn't just any dream – it was a really bad one. I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't have to wash my sheets because my sweat did the job for her."

"What? What was it?"

"I – I don't really know. It was this man, he was tall – really strong looking, like he could punch the daylights out of me. He was talking about some kind of – "

A shout stopped Vira from going any further. Her ears perked up.

"Is that – Jasper?" Vira asked, dropping Laura's wrist, which she didn't know she was holding. Laura squinted and listened, she nodded.

"LAURA." The shouting was coming closer. "LAURA?"

Jasper finally approached Vira and Laura, he recoiled quickly from the stench but then returned to his normal state. He had tears in his eyes and his voice was like static, far away and crackly.

"Jasper, what – what is it?" Laura asked, turning to her brother.

"It's mom and dad." His face twisted up into a frustrated and sad mix. He shook his head, wiped his tears and took a deep breath. "They're gone."

* * *

 _ **A/N: Finally some action, I'm sorry it took so long**_ (◕︵◕) _**but, the adventure finally starts now! See you next chapter!**_


	8. VIII - Emily

➝ _I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **VIII**

 **EMILY**

Emily knew that perhaps her parents had just gone out without notice and would return quite soon, but it was no coincidence that Felix's dad, the Jackson's, and the Grace's parents were missing as well. Maybe they could have gone on a vacation all on their own without telling anyone, but the likelihood of that was, well, pretty _un_ likely.

The camp had spent days so far searching high and low for the seven and Nico Di Angelo, they had checked everywhere. They were planning to start searching out of the camp, when they had deemed it dangerous, if the seven could go missing, so could the others. They were planning to contact the other camp, Camp Jupiter, to see if perhaps they were there.

Outside of the camp borders, a large storm was brewing. Dark clouds were rolling over and rain was already slowly pouring down. It looked gloomy, and it felt gloomy.

Emily sat down skittishly next to Laura Jackson, who was staring off into space, her food untouched. Laura, hadn't been taking her parent's disappearance well, it was evident. She was constantly holed up in her room and when she wasn't, she was getting angry at the lack of progress that the camp had towards finding her parents.

Unlike Laura, Emily didn't show her sadness in such an evident way. Instead, Emily found herself keeping it inside but she knew that often her hands would shake in worry and she'd lose track of her train of thought very easily. She hoped no one had noticed.

"Seriously, five days. We have been searching five days in this camp! We've looked everywhere almost a hundred times, and still, nothing. _Obviously_ people have to start looking _**outside**_." Laura mumbled angrily. "Who could have done this?" She asked, the blank look on her face being replaced by that recently familiar angry face.

"We don't know if someone _took_ our parents." Lia said, her eyebrows furrowed. Her face was still as always, but her tone of voice was shaky and obviously, she was on edge as well.

"Isn't it obvious?" Thomas asked, shaking his head.

"What is?"

"That someone took our parents." Thomas answered. "Why else would they be _nowhere_? They were there in the morning and suddenly, they weren't. It's not like they decided to take a trip without telling anyone."

"But if they're in trouble we should _do_ something." Laura growled. Lia shook her head.

"You heard Chiron, we can't. Not unless he issues us a quest, and even if he did, only three of us could go. He's not going to let _eight_ of us go." Lia mumbled. Emily sighed, she looked down at the food on her plate, and suddenly felt sick.

"Em, you okay?" Jasper asked, looking up from a book. He had bloodshot eyes. Emily nodded.

"I'm fine." Emily replied. Jasper nodded and turned back to his book, his eyebrows were furrowed. Emily didn't know what he was reading, but it must have been good, because despite all the yelling in the dining hall, he was focused. Emily stared past Jasper and out into the darkness, when something caught her eye. It was a quick flash of light out in the forest that surrounded the camps. Emily jumped, dropping her fork that she was grabbing tightly. She hadn't noticed.

"What is it?" Laura asked, turning her head.

"Did you guys see that?" Emily asked everyone. They all turned to where Emily was pointing, but it was now dark. They turned back.

"There was a flash of – light, out in the forest." Emily said, frantically.

Thomas furrowed his eyebrows. "Lightning?"

"It wasn't lightning." She added.

"It was probably just your eyes." Felix mumbled. He had dark circles under his eyes, darker than usual and looked purely done with everything.

"Felix is right. We've all been really on edge lately, we've also been losing sleep." Vira mumbled, she had her head in her hands and her plate was empty, however it looked as if nothing was in it in the first place. Aside from looking slightly worried, she looked perfectly fine. Emily grumbled.

"I'm going to go check it out." She said, everyone's eyes suddenly lit up and stared up at her as she stood up.

"You can't do that." Curtis grabbed her wrist. "It's dangerous."

"It's in the forest around camp. It can't be that dangerous." Emily said. "Besides, I can take care of myself."

"Em. It's not safe. Mom and dad - they're missing and as hard as it may seem, it's easy to take us too." Curtis insisted. Emily pulled her wrist out of his grasp and stepped aside.

"I'm going." Emily insisted, something in her heart was tugging and she felt as if she needed to go check it out. "Unless, anyone wants to come _with_ me?" Emily asked, raising her eyebrows. They all sighed and shuffled. Thomas was the first to stand.

"I'll come."

"So will I." Vira said, Lia then stood up and then they all decided to come along. Emily hoped it wasn't just a trick of her eye.

* * *

"Oh god." Thomas whispered. "I can't see anything."

"Careful." Emily mumbled, stepping over a branch.

"Why can't we just walk out of the camp borders?"

"Because." Emily hissed. "We'll get caught trying to leave. There'll be some questions."

A thump echoed. Everyone shushed.

"Who the hell was that?"

"I fell." Thomas whined. "Sorry."

"Do you remember where the light flash was?" Someone asked. Emily stopped.

"Just about." She whispered. "Right here. I think." She said, then she dropped to the ground and began searching for something. Anything. But Thomas was right. It was really dark. She couldn't see anything. Her hands were going over pure dirt. Emily was pretty sure her hand had just ran over some animal poop.

"Wait – I – I got something." Lia exclaimed. Everyone turned to where she was sitting (or so they assumed) "No – sorry it's just a chip bag. Whoops." She mumbled. Everyone sighed and went back to searching the ground.

After searching for what seemed like forever. Emily gave up. It turned out to be just a trick of the eye.

"Look, you guys. Thanks for coming, but it's not – I think there's nothing here. Felix was right." She said, standing up when she heard something crack.

"What was that?" She whispered.

"Me. I – I think I found something." Vira said. "Yeah, I did. Here –" She said, holding out something. Emily tried grabbing it but ended up missing.

"What is it?" Emily said excitedly.

"Just a piece of paper. Wait – It says something." Vira paused.

" _ **The missing sons and daughters**_

 _ **Hidden in places of the past**_

 _ **A battle of good and bad will break**_

 _ **With the lives of all at stake**_ "

"What – Is that a prophecy?" Emily asked.

"It sounds like one."

"The missing sons and daughters... it has to be about our parents." Vira whispered.

"How can you read that in this darkness?"

"I - you can't?" Vira asked, obviously confused. "It's not that dark." She added.

"That doesn't matter right now. We need to tell someone, someone who can help us." Emily asked.

"Who?"

"Chiron."

* * *

"So, what is it?" Emily asked, watching Chiron examine the piece of paper. He made noises of confusion and thought. He was stroking his chin and and was in a wheelchair currently.

"This - this is not a prophecy. Part of it is. But not all." He said, lifting the paper and shaking it around. "This is a warning, a hint. From whoever took your parents. You children just arrived here a couple weeks ago. You are all so _young._ Highly inexperienced in both your culture and skills you need to survive. We will send campers that are prepared for a quest."

"But - you sent so many demigods, new ones, might I add on quests _all_ the time. They're no more experienced than we are." Emily exclaimed. Chiron shook his head.

"You children a different case. If your parents are missing, the least you can do is stay safe while we search for them. By tomorrow morning I will have a team set out for the search." He said, handing Emily the paper back.

"But - "

"Miss. Zhang - please. I am telling you to stay, for only your own good. Not only her - but to all of you." Chiron shot up and stared at all the children in front of him. He pointed at them. "I understand that this is a hard request. But stay out of trouble." Chiron sighed. "Now if I may have my night's end?" He rose an eyebrow and Emily nodded, she turned on her heels and walked out of The Big House.

Emily shivered as soon as she was outside, the summer air was turning cooler and she was only wearing a tank top.

"That wasn't very Chiron-like." Vira mumbled, running a hand through her long hair. She patted herself down and sighed.

"It wasn't really helpful either." Laura added. "I was hoping he could tell us something about it. But he left it cryptic enough and told us to leave."

Thomas let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes tightly. "God, I'm _so_ tired."

"I know Chiron told us to stay here. At camp. But..." Vira trailed off, looking around to her sides.

"But?"

"We can't just sit here and wait as the clock ticks for our parents. Look, let's lay down the facts. Our parents are missing, not dead. But obviously, their time is running out and while Chiron sends demigods out who don't know much - we have two options. Sit and wait until we hear the news that nobody made it, or we go and find them ourselves."

"I don't think that's the best idea." Curtis sighed.

"They're _our_ parents. If anyone can find them, we should be able to."

"They're not going to _die._ " Laura rolled her eyes. But Emily knew that it was highly possible her parents could be dead soon, or anytime soon. Perhaps even now and she wasn't willing to risk it. For once, she agreed with Vira. She wouldn't allow herself to sit in curiosity and pain.

"I agree with Vira." Emily mustily said. The words felt unfamiliar in her mouth. Ever since she was little, she'd always disagree with everything her sister would say, whether it'd be small decisions or talks on the weather or big things like which camp to attend.

"You do?" Vira pulled a face as she spoke. Emily nodded, her eyebrows furrowed and a serious expression on her face. She crossed her arms and felt her goosebumps.

"There's a reason for everything and there's a reason why _we_ found the paper instead of some demigod. We have to find our parents. I'm not waiting to find out if they're out there or down there," Emily nodded down towards the ground. "We need to go find them."


	9. IX - Laura

➝ _I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **IX**

 **LAURA**

The discussion had gone on for too long and Laura was beginning to feel drowsy. Since their visit to the cabin, they had all went to the Zhang's home and surrounded themselves across the large table talking about what to do.

" _Hidden in places of the past._ " Emily read, suddenly she groaned and smacked her face onto the table. "This is harder than I thought."

Jasper nodded his head. "The message is so _vague_."

"Our parents are obviously scattered around somewhere – "

"What if they're all at the same place?"

Emily shook her head viciously. "I'm betting on them being hidden in different places, since there are several they can't possibly be all hidden in one place."

Jasper nodded. "That makes sense, but the past – the past?" He started trailing off, rubbing his eyes every so often.

"This isn't working." Emily grunted. "We need to leave tomorrow, before it's too late. But we don't even know where we're going."

"Or how." Thomas added.

"Or how." Emily agreed. A silence was left as soon as they'd stopped talking, but Laura could tell everyone was thinking hard. Laura began to think as well, half of the message was obvious, their parents were gone and they were being hidden somewhere, in places of the past, but this is where it got iffy to assume. Whose past? What if they were to go look at the wrong place? It'd waste a _lot_ of time.

Snapping Laura out of her thoughts, Curtis smacked the table with a fist. Everyone jumped.

"You guys, just think. Who's someone who knows things about the future and is easily able to decipher cryptic things, due to announcing them all the time?" Curtis said, excitedly.

Everyone stared at him as if he was crazy for a couple of seconds until Laura got what he was saying.

"Rachel!" She said, nodding. Rachel Elizabeth Dare was an old friend of her father's, whom she'd never met, however, she was apparently the current host of the Oracle as she had been in the past. She hadn't announced a prophecy in years, assuming that the Oracle had left her body.

"Rachel, like Rachel Dare? Or Rachel Ray?" Thomas asked, his chin on his hand. Lia smacked him on the back of the head.

"Rachel Dare, you idiot." She mumbled.

"You're right – but – where is she? She's not at camp anymore is she?" Emily asked, cocking her head ever the slightest.

"Not at this one." Lia mumbled, everyone turned to her ask she spoke. She looked up from her crossed arms at the people staring at her.

"You mean – she's at Camp Jupiter?" Vira asked, crossing her arms as well. Lia nodded.

"Are you sure? Why would she be there?"

"Look, ever since Octavian died, surprisingly enough the camp wasn't able to find a replacement. I heard from Chiron that Rachel often spends one month there and another month here, like some kind of program or something." Lia said.

"So we need to go to Camp Jupiter?" Emily asked, shaking her head. Laura spoke up.

"That seems a bit far-fetched. Going _all_ the way to Camp Jupiter _just_ so that we can talk to Rachel. What if she isn't even there? Or if she isn't any help?"

"It's the only idea we've got." Emily said, rubbing her temples. "Though you're right. It's _really_ far-fetched." She let out another heavy groan.

"What else can we do?" Felix asked, his voice shaking slightly at the end. Vira frowned at him and asked him if he was alright, in which he responded by snapping at her.

"Can I see that?" Vira asked, pointing to the paper slip in Emily's hand. Emily reluctantly handed it over to Vira who stared at it, reading the passage over and over again.

"Is there anyone at _this_ camp we can talk to?" Laura asked, she wasn't really up for going all the way to Camp Jupiter just to talk to an oracle that may not be able to help them at all. They all started up the thinking train once again. Laura looked up from the table and asked Vira for the paper. She nodded and handed it over.

Laura stared at the writing on it, scribbled and yet heavy. The paper was mocking Laura, giving such minimal information. It was killing her –

"Ouch!" She shouted, dropped the paper. She had felt a quick burning sensation in the hand that was holding the paper. Everyone stared at her, as she slowly picked up the paper, she saw that the original message was gone. But on the back, there was a new message.

 _ **The first to be saved**_

 _ **Is hidden where the base of the enemy was built**_

 _ **Of the war past the last.**_

Laura read out loud, everyone stared off into space for moments and then finally Thomas spoke.

"What does that mean?"

"It's a hint." Vira said, Thomas nodded but Felix retorted.

" _No, I_ thought it was a death threat." He rolled his eyes

"Could very well be. We don't know who's sending these, or even why. Who would be helping us?' Thomas said, crossing his arms and legs.

"I don't know. But we've got a hint. This is one step closer to finding our parents." Laura said excitedly, shaking her hand off as it burned.

"You okay?" Jasper asked, his eyebrows furrowed. Laura nodded.

"Fine. The paper just snitched my hand a little when it changed. I wonder how that happened." Laura mumbled, shaking her hand some more as the sensation faded.

"Laura's right. Now we just need to figure out what _this_ means."

After about an hour of staring through Greek Myth books and thinking hard and looking into the past, they had concluded a couple things.

"Mount Othrys. That's where the first parent is. It was the base in the last Titan war, it was before Gaea's. It makes sense. I mean they're saying ' _hidden where the base of the enemy was built, of the war past the last.'"_ Jasper said, tapping his fingers on the wooden table. Laura glanced up at the clock on the wall right across from her, the time read 2:50 AM. Emily nodded.

"You're right. But it isn't called Othrys anymore."

"What is it?"

"It's called Mount Tamalpais right now." Lia nodded. "But Jasper's right, it has to be there. It says the war past the last and the last war was the one where all our parents fought, but the one before that…"

"Where is the mountain?" Thomas asked, looking tired as ever with bags forming under his eyes. Emily and Jasper spoke at the same time.

"In California."

* * *

The light was starting to hurt Laura's eyes as she stared out the window, sure, it was raining the next day near the camp, but it was a light rain and the sky carried an odd pale blue color. Laura turned away from the window and zipped open her backpack, which was bulging, just to check if she had everything she'd need. Emily Zhang walked up to the dining table which Laura was sitting at and set a hand down on it.

"Where's Jasper?" She asked. Laura thought for a second as to where her brother was and replied.

"Upstairs."

Emily too, had a large backpack on her back, however somehow less bulging than Laura's was. Laura check on the inside of her backpack. She had some extra clothes, some food, bags of ambrosia Jasper had snagged from the infirmary, she also had several bottles of water, about 70$ and lastly, her sword, which was in coin form and in her pocket. She was just getting used to it. She hoped she wouldn't have to use it.

It had only been nearly two and a half weeks since Laura had discovered she was a legacy of Poseidon and Athena and already things weren't working out well for her. But it wasn't a choice. Her parents were missing and if it meant sneaking out to find them, she would do it. Laura was skittish and afraid, to be frankly honest. She was new to everything, she was _just_ getting adjusted to the idea of who she really was, but then suddenly her parents get kidnapped (presumably) and she was faced with sudden stress and frustration.

What if her parents were being tortured? Or worse, what if they were dead? What if _Laura_ would be killed? What if -

"We need to get a move on, or else we're going to lose our chance to sneak out today." Emily sighed and pulled out a chair to sit down on, snapping Laura out of her thoughts. Laura nodded and dug her face deep into the neck of her jacket. She was sweating in it, as it was the middle of July, but she wore it anyways, just in case. She watched as Vira Zhang and Curtis Zhang walked in, both looking quite ready to leave.

Vira had her dark hair in a long, straight ponytail, she wore black jeans, a grey t-shirt and a red plaid shirt on top with the sleeves rolled up. She carried a beige canvas backpack and had a knife attached to her belt. Curtis on the other hand had a bow and quiver with him and had a side bag with him, it was quite small and seemed to be light.

"Where are Lia and Thomas?" Vira asked, sniffling and tightening her ponytail. Emily shook her head.

"I have no idea."

"We're right here." Thomas said, opening the door and letting in warm air from the outside. It was the nighttime and everyone had agreed to meet at Laura's home before they left. They had decided to leave in the night, a couple of hours after the team of three left. Thomas's dark blond hair was neatly spiked up and he wore a hoodie and carried a backpack. Lia had her brown hair in two braids and she carried the same still expression as always, she had a backpack on her back as well.

"Good, if you guys had come any later we might have had to go looking for you and well – "Emily nodded towards everyone's backpacks. "It might have looked a little weird that we all look like we're ready to go out for a hike."

No one said anything for a while, leaving a pregnant pause.

"Who are we waiting for again?"

"Jasper and Felix." Lia sighed quite heavily, she adjusted her backpack with a face of discomfort and stopped immediately at the sound of footsteps.

"It's just me." Jasper said, holding his hands up in surrender as everyone turned to look at him. Jasper's messy blond hair was still a mess, but he wasn't wearing his glasses, in fact he most often did not nowadays. He was wearing a hoodie and shorts and carried a small backpack.

"How is your backpack so _small_?" Laura asked, resting her head on her hand.

"I packed only what I needed to." Jasper shrugged. A short silence was left and a bunch of shuffling noises were made the door slammed open, Laura heard a loud cry come from behind the crowd of kids. They all turned their heads.

"I'm here." Felix said, panting. "I'm – oh god." He stopped, glancing down at Vira on the ground who was scowling at him.

"Is this going to become a regular thing? Where you hit me with doors in any possible place? For example my face? Are you planning to break my _nose_ next?" She asked, nearly in a hissing tone. Felix looked apologetic for a second and then scowled back.

"Maybe you should steer clear of _doors_."

"Well _maybe_ you shouldn't open them so hard." Vira rolled her eyes. Felix grunted.

"Not my fault."

"How is that _not your fault_?!" Vira cried.

"I can't help it if – "

"Okay!" Emily shouted. "We should get going, we're all here right?" she asked, everyone nodded in agreement.

"Look, I just have to double check, everyone's got their weapon of choice right?"

Everyone mumbled a yes. But Laura hoped she wouldn't have to use her sword. She also hoped she wouldn't lose it. It's pretty hard to keep track of a coin.

"And everyone has the basics? Ambrosia, food, money, clothes?" Emily asked again, looking serious. "So, everyone knows the plan? We can't all just sneak out at once, it seems suspicious, so try to sneak out in groups of 3 or 2. Meet out in the clearing hill at the front."

"I forgot, how are we getting to the city?" Curtis questioned, Emily shot a look of desperation. They _had_ planned this out thoroughly throughout the past day. Emily took in a deep breath and replied.

"We're taking – look, you'll see once we're all out. Don't worry, it's effective." She mumbled. "Find someone to sneak out with." She mumbled, nodding towards Lia and Lia nodded back. Laura helped Vira off the ground and took her as a partner.

"Let's go." Laura nodded.

* * *

Laura knew that she didn't see well in the dark, but she found it unfair that Vira could see nearly perfectly fine. Vira held Laura's hand and led her past the border and some branches on the ground. She held on tight until the clearing where they had bumped into Lia, Jasper, Emily and Curtis. Laura let out a breath she didn't know she was holding when she spotted her brother.

"Where are Thomas and Felix?"

"We're right here." Thomas said, rubbing his eyes. "Crap, my eyes _still_ aren't adjusted to the dark."

"Everyone here and ready?" Emily asked, Laura glanced to her side and mentally counted everyone. Emily did the same.

"Let's do it." Emily whispered.

Jasper shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a golden drachma, Emily nodded at him and he nodded back.

" _Stêthi 'Ô hárma diabolês"_ He whispered, throwing the drachma on the street. Everyone looked tense for a second, while nothing happened.

"What – did I say it wrong or – " Jasper asked, but a whizzing wind came by his face and nearly cut his nose off, Laura pulled him back just in time. Sitting in front of them, was a regular yellow New York taxi. Laura swallowed a tense scream and instead let out a noise, almost a whimper. The door smacked itself open, hitting Jasper's leg in the process. He crippled over and groaned.

"Ow." He sarcastically whispered.

"Get in the cab." A husky voice said from inside the cab. "Now, now, come on." It added after a moment. "I haven't got all day and neither do my sisters."

A horrible cackling fest rang out in the empty summer air. Everyone was frozen. Slowly, Jasper walked and sat down in the cab, Lia followed and Vira next, Laura entered the cab second to last but was resulted to sit on top of Lia. The cab smelled old and looked highly germ filled. There were three women sitting in the front of the cab.

One of them giggled. "We've got lots of company to-day." She singed.

"Good, good. Extra fare, pricey. Are you guys all _squished_ up back there?" Another asked, Laura looked to her side, where Felix was sitting on top of Thomas who was squinting from the uncomfortable feeling of having someone on top of him.

"A little. Yeah." Thomas said, clearing his throat as he spoke. The middle lady jumped.

" _Perfect_. Would you like _extra_ seats?" She said, Laura saw her long fingers tap across the front board.

"No – no thanks." Laura nodded, but when she looked up to the mirror, she nearly hit her head on the top of the car. There were three women, yes, but they had no eyes. She felt herself sweating and getting clammy. No eyes? How were they going to drive?

"Where to?" One asked.

"Mount Tamalpais."

"Far away ain't it? Pricey though, just my kind of ride."

"Hit it, Tempest."


	10. X - Jasper

➝ _I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **X**

 **JASPER**

The ride to Mount Tamalpais was going smoothly. If smoothly meant nearly being thrown out the car four times, bumping your head on the roof twice and almost being split into two. Jasper was starting to feel sick in the car, he could feel his dinner coming up this throat and his gag reflexes were at work. Only when the ride had begun, he had noticed what Laura was trying to tell him, the women only shared one eye in between each other.

He understood now why his parents had told him and Laura that this wasn't a good method of transportation.

The car lurched forwards as the three sisters cackled and their long nailed fingers all slapped together. It was a miracle that they hadn't crashed yet. It was unsettling how the car didn't have seatbelts but rather, black chains around their bodies. At least they weren't being hung from the ceiling of the car.

"Almost there, sweethearts." One of them said, then cleared her throat continuously, hacking on and on. Jasper felt the sweat building up on his palms, he was losing grip on whatever he could grab on to as the car went faster and faster. Everyone looked highly uncomfortable, like they were about to vomit, Felix looked green. They were on the highway right now, speeding past people slowly driving. Everything was a light blur and Jasper was starting to lose track of his sight.

Just as his head was starting to feel lightheaded, the car halted right away. Jasper's head flew to the head of the seat in front of him and he felt a sharp pain on his forehead.

"We stop here." One of the women sighed. "Sorry."

Jasper glanced outside through the window (which was somehow _not_ broken at all, though dusty). He saw a tall, looming mountain in the dark. It looked slightly charred, if that made sense and it seemed quite dark and scary. Jasper felt a shiver down his spine.

"Why?" Laura asked, frowning.

One of the women turned around. Jasper wished she hadn't. He had to look at her grey, wrinkly face without an eye, might he add, for more than a millisecond.

"Don't you know?"

"Know what?"

They all tittered before she answered again. "This was where Kronos was during the second titan war – but don't worry, he's gone now. There's just a horrid amount of deadly creatures lurking here." She said, picking at her gross nails.

"Don't forget that sour boy – Atlas. Still carrying the sky." One of them mumbled, the last one smacked the one that just spoke.

"Anyways, this is where we leave you. Get out." The first one (the driver) hissed and opened the door. One by one, everyone scrambled out and within seconds a cloud of dust was left where the taxi once was.

Everyone stood still, not knowing what to say.

"What just happened?" Laura asked.

"I believe we've arrived at our destination." Emily answered, grabbing her sword with her hand and pulling it out.

"Woah – " Jasper said, holding up his hands.

"What?" Emily asked, narrowing her eyes at Jasper.

"What are you pulling that out for?"

"You heard them, there's a lot of monsters on this mountain. And we need to find one of our parents, there's no way this is going to do down peacefully." Emily said. "I suggest you take your weapon too."

"Atlas – he's the guy who holds the sky, right?" Laura patted herself down, wincing at the amount of dust that had collected from the taxi.

"Yeah. I heard he's really whiny." Thomas said, clearing his throat.

"Do you smell that?" Vira asked, sniffing the night air. Jasper shook his head.

"What?"

"It smells like – eucalyptus." She mumbled.

"Eucalplatypus?" Felix frowned. Vira let out a heavy sigh.

"It's a plant." She said.

"Ugh, this place creeps me out." Laura whispered, Jasper snorted, looking up at the mountain.

"Wait until we actually start walking." He whispered back, adjusting his backpack.

"You guys, we have to get moving. If we stay in one place too long – who knows what will happen. I mean, do the math. 9 Legacies? All of seemingly highly wanted demigods?" Thomas said, pulling off his necklace and pulling off the medallion, he threw it up and it turned into a sword. Clattering in the dark, he shoved the string into his pocket and held on tightly to his sword.

"Tom's right. We should get going. Now." Emily sighed. "But where?"

"My best guess is that whoever's parent, is with Atlas. He's still here, isn't he?" Felix said, standing up from his squatting position. He grunted. Jasper nodded.

"But where is he on the mountain?"

"He can't be that hard to locate. He's a titan, he's pretty fricking big." Laura mumbled. "Right?"

"Yeah, now hurry up." Emily said, beginning to walk straight into the trees.

"Hey, wait – do you know where we're going?" Jasper ran after her, wishing he could see better in the dark as he grabbed a tree instead of Emily's shoulder.

"Nope." Emily answered.

* * *

"Where the heck is he?" Jasper asked, grunting as he dodged a flying tree branch. They had been walking for what seemed like hours, they didn't even know where exactly on the mountain they were anymore.

"Doesn't he go fe fi fo fum or something like that?" Thomas asked.

"No – that's from Jack and the Beanstalk, god, what's wrong with you people?" Emily frustratingly asked.

"Shut up – we don't want to be found." Lia mumbled. "We're being so loud."

Emily suddenly stopped, as did everyone else. She was standing still and leaning forward slightly, shushing everyone. There was groaning and slow cracks coming from the distance. Emily started tip toeing straight forwards which landed them to a clearing.

In front of them was a large, towering, caved in and burnt castle type building and from within, there was a loud banging and lots of shouting. Everyone jumped at each bang as they slowly crept out from behind the rocks and trees and full out into the clearing. Jasper stared to his side and as he squinted he saw a small figure struggling.

"Is that him?" He asked, pointing. Emily looked and shook her head.

"I don't know if I'm willing to risk going there and asking him for help or to see if he has one of our parents. I don't think he'd know." She frowned, staring to the building with the banging noises.

"But if we don't, we could be risking losing one of our parents."

"How about in there?" Thomas asked, looking and nodding towards the building. Felix frowned and shook his heads.

"I thought you guys would be able to think of this, we _split up_." He says, crossing his arms and adjusting the backpack on his back. Everyone nodded.

"Felix is right, we can get more done that way." Emily agreed.

"We've got eight people, we can divide four and four. We should hurry." Jasper said, shaking his head and shivering a bit. The banging was distracting him and making him skittish. It was not a good sign.

"I'll go to where the banging noises are coming from." Thomas said, nodding and ripped off the thread around his neck, and in return in his hand was a large sword.

"I'll come too." Vira nodded, zipping open her backpack and grabbing a single knife and gripping it tightly.

"Same." Laura said, pulling out a sword as well.

"I'm going to go over there." Emily said, pointing to the speck.

"I'll come with you." Jasper nodded. Felix shook his head and walked towards Emily and Jasper.

"Me too."

"Okay, you guys take Lia and we'll take Curtis." Emily shook her head, pushing her brother forwards as he sheepishly moved forwards and nodded.

"Let's go." Thomas said, grabbing Curtis by his shoulders as he smiled.

"Wait – what's the signal if something goes wrong – "

"Which is _most_ likely to happen." Vira added.

"Let's hope nothing does but, I don't think we can have a signal. We're too far apart. Let's meet up back here. By this." Thomas said, patting the huge rock looming over them.

"When?"

"As soon as we can." Felix nodded. "We should hurry, time's ticking."

Quickly, Jasper looked behind him as he watch the group of four walking away into the building and he felt his heart beating in his chest wildly. He wasn't ready for this, he slowly realized that he had underestimated this. What if, he died?

He wasn't particularly excelled at fighting nor was he experienced with the world that he came from. Jasper's hands started to get sweatier and sweatier as they sneakily approached the speck. It started to turn into a large, huge, towering and also sweaty monster.

Emily shushed them. "We have to be careful." She peered out from behind the hill, it wasn't exactly the best defense mechanism though.

Jasper glanced up and heard the groaning and struggling. Slowly heavy breaths became loud growls and then died down. Sneaking a peek, he saw a nearly 30 foot tall giant, it's skin bronze and browning, and his eyes, once open, pearly white as if he was blind.

He had claws and green feet, his hands kept slipping every so often.

Jasper had of course, never seen someone hold the sky before but it looked _really_ hard to do. Even the giant was in pain. However, he quickly paused and then a grin spread across his face that terrified Jasper.

"I smell demigod." The monster sang in a deep voice, straightening himself out. "Come out, come out, and come help the giant."

Emily shot up and stood, her sword in her hand. Jasper panicked and grabbed her ankles.

"What are you doing?!" he hissed, glancing up at her as Emily kicked Jasper's hands away.

"The giant wants to play a game? We play a game. Let's see what he has to say first." She said, nodding to Felix and Lia. Lia shakily, stood up and stood beside Emily. The giant looked extremely pleased at the sight of the two girls. Felix edged around the hill, flat, and next to Jasper began to whisper.

"Stay down." He whispered, his hands slowly crept towards his sword and he held it tightly. Jasper did the same. However the sweat on his hands was overpowering, the sword slipped.

"My, my. Isn't this splendid. My master told me to expect you parasites." The giant scowled. This was getting too real for Jasper. His emotions were a jumble.

"Are you Atlas?" Emily shouted. Jasper tensed up, he waited for Emily to be shot down or to be killed but surprisingly the giant didn't do anything.

"That _stupid_ – I can't even begin to –" The giant sputtered. "No, I am not Atlas." He paused, struggling as he adjusted the sky. "I am Enceladus. The giant born to oppose Athena and anyone who carries her blood."

Jasper's sweat was starting to pool. Athena. This giant was born to oppose Athena or anyone who carries her blood. Jasper carried her blood.

This was the end for him.

Jasper felt like passing out.

"What – but – " Emily said, obviously confused.

"Why are you the one holding the sky?" Lia asked, crossing her arms.

"My master sent me here – to keep you stupid kids from getting what you want but they did not tell me that there was another here. That stupid fool tricked me – I can't believe he did – to hold the sky in place of him and now – now he takes my place."

"Wait – that's not – that's – where is he?"

The giant laughed then coughed, struggling under the weight. "I won't tell you that – that would give away my job. Despite me not being the one doing it." He hissed, shouting in the air. Jasper sat up, even if Felix tried to pull him down. Enceladus looked older than he was two minutes ago. Like the life was being sucked out of him.

"There's only one place that Atlas could be that fits the description." Jasper said, pointing to the castle where the other four were.

"I smell my enemies blood – " he laughed. "You are one of her kind."

Jasper shivered, he felt so small. But they had to get a move on, there was no point in staying here and conversing with someone who wanted to kill him. Emily's head shot around and glared at him.

"We can make a deal. You give me my _freedom_ back and I let you go. For now." He grinned again, Jasper glanced at Felix who was shaking his head.

"Never make deals with the enemy." He hissed but Emily had already spoken.

"Fine." She said. "But your fight with Atlas is not ours, we bring him here and that's all." She nodded, Enceladus frowned but nodded. Jasper shivered. This could not go well.

Suddenly, a bang – much louder than normal and a scream rang throughout the air. The four of them stared at each other. Then together, then began to run towards the building.


	11. XI - Thomas

➝ _I own nothing that is canon ←_

* * *

 **XI**

 **THOMAS**

Thomas was scared the big toilet looking thing was going to flush him down, either that or he would flush himself down from lack of self-control. This place was giving him the creeps. It was dark as hell, it smelled like failure and frankly the constant noises coming out of corners of the building wasn't helping. Apparently, his dad along with many other Roman campers of his time had stormed this mountain and fought bravely.

It didn't look like it had ended too well.

The building was completely made of black – what seemed to be – marble, or perhaps it was charred marble, if that was possible. As it smelled heavily of char and coal. Thomas's footsteps kept scaring himself. They tapped loudly in the darkness. Slow, cold wind kept blowing at all angles. It was eerie.

Thomas stared ahead of him with his sword at his side and his arms around himself as he shuddered. It was seriously cold for the summer. In front of him, Vira and Curtis were walking side by side, when they paused. Laura stood next to Thomas with her arms crossed and her eyebrows furrowed. She wore her hair up in a dark ponytail and her eyes were staring, darting around. Thomas shivered again, the cold wind hitting his back.

He watched in horror as Vira walked straight up, without warning or caution towards the big toilet (which is what he'd decided to call it) and stood in front of it.

"What's this still doing here?" She asked, frowning. Curtis looked up from his feet and rose and eyebrow.

"Still?"

"This – this is obviously Kronos's throne. I mean, it's a little blown over but this is it. I don't get why – this whole thing is still here." Vira shook her head. "I mean, from the way mom and dad told it, it sounded like it wouldn't be."

"How can you tell?"

"What?"

"How can you tell that's his throne?"

Vira's face stayed still, her expression the same. Thomas had a feeling that she didn't just know it from stories, it sounded like she had seen it before. The throne was barely recognizable. It _actually_ looked like a huge, fancy, black toilet. Vira's brown eyes, in the moonlight, now looked nearly black. She sighed.

"It's the biggest thing in the center of the main room – the center of the castle. I'm just going to assume that it's his throne." Vira shook her head. "I can't be too sure."

Vira, lightly and nimbly, dodged around the big toilet, patting it and staring. Thomas frowned, he didn't like the feeling in the pit of his stomach. Splitting up was the first mistake, Thomas didn't like splitting anything up. Even his food. Some would call him greedy, but Thomas would just want to keep what was his, safe.

He felt his hand's grip tighten around his sword as Vira began to walk away, as if on cue, the _loudest_ bang came from above them. Vira jumped and slipped on a step in the process, she landed on the ground. All their heads went shooting straight up. Thomas nearly broke his neck from looking up so fast. He looked back down and adjusted his neck.

"Did you guys hear that?" Curtis asked, looking worried. Laura nodded.

"How could we not? That was – terrifyingly loud." She said, frowning and shaking her head.

"We have to go see what that was." Vira suggested.

"Are you kidding me? That's a _horrible_ idea." Curtis said, a quiver at the end of his words. Thomas shook his head.

"Vira's right, we should go see what it was. One of our parents are in danger, and I don't care whose it is, I'm not ready to risk anything." Thomas said. "If we could only figure out how to get up there." He worriedly mumbled. Curtis sighed and looked as Thomas with disappointment as if he was saying ' _you were my only hope of being listened to'_. Thomas shrugged back and began to walk around the huge, central room.

"We don't have to look too far, there's some stairs here." Laura said, pointing towards a dark void in the side of the room. He walked over and stared at them. They were large and spiraling, and also black. As Thomas stared he noticed that these stairs were not, _whole_.

Most of them had cracks in them and the ones that were fine had blank spaces of falling space in between them. Thomas frowned and shook his head.

"That doesn't look too safe." He said, sighing. "Look at how far we'd fall. There's _actually_ no end." He mumbled. Laura looked frantic.

"Look, I don't know _what_ other option we have, I'm going to take my chances." Laura said, breathing heavily and before Thomas could stop her, Laura was already several steps up.

"It's not that hard." She said. "Just be careful of where you step and make sure you have enough light to see where the hell you're going." She said, but Thomas could tell she was scared, she clutched onto the railing for dear life, even when there was a step under her. Thomas rolled his eyes and began to step up, carefully as well. Vira followed and so did Curtis. They all stepped one at a time, making sure not to slip. Thomas's hands were sweating.

He knew he could ride the air currents if he fell, but what if it didn't work? Or what would happen when all of them fell? He could only support one. Barely. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if two out of four died, no matter who they were. Thomas stretched his legs far as he could to get across a gap, sweating even more as he held onto the railing. He didn't want to look down.

Sure, he could fly, technically speaking, but the height of falling was desperately far. Thomas wasn't scared of the height. He was scared of the death that would meet him once he slipped. Obviously this excessive thought wasn't good for him because his shoe collided with a step as he fell face forwards into a cracked stair (thank god). He yelped in pain as the sharp edges jabbed into his chest. Vira leaned over and frowned.

"Are you okay?" She said, holding a hand out, another on the railing. Thomas nodded and took her hand, he stood up and rubbed his chest as he started walking again when this time a shout, cackle and scream rang in the empty building from the floor above.

"How many more steps are there? This feels endless." Laura panted. "And we're definitely not alone in here."

"I don't like this." Vira whispered. "What if a monster comes and attacks us _on_ these stairs? We're done for." She said.

"Why are you whispering?" Thomas asked, cocking his head as he stepped again. Vira looked up at him and smiled a little.

"We should try and be quiet. There's someone else here, and I don't think they're good. We don't want to be found out." She said, putting a finger over her mouth. Thomas nodded and attempted for his steps to be less loud. Laura jumped off the last step and onto the black marble ground and sighed of relief.

"I think all my energy is gone from all those hellish stairs." She rolled her eyes, she began to walk through the columns when she froze and Thomas smacked into her, Vira smacked into Thomas and Curtis smacked into Vira.

"What is it?" Thomas hissed. Laura stepped back, Thomas could almost feel the cold sweat coming off her.

"Um, I think we've met our nemesis." She said. "I don't really want to go first, aka, I have no monster fighting experience. Please – "Laura said, ushering for Thomas to go first. He sighed, and stepped forwards past through the columns. To his surprise there was nothing there, nothing above him either. It was the dark, cloudy night sky. The darkness was starting to cloud Thomas and made him feel as if he lost his eyesight.

In the darkness, as he looked to the right there was large stomping coming from around the corner and there was a glowing, orange light. Thomas looked behind him at the three and put a finger over his mouth, signaling for everyone to shut up. He told them to follow him, as he began to slowly walk towards the glow, he could hear more.

"Ugh – let me go – you stupid – "A woman's voice struggled, however a large, overpowering laugh boomed.

"That's not happening, unfortunately. Ah, think of it as payback for what you and your little friends did to me a couple years back." The voice tittered and Thomas felt as if the ground was shaking. He hoped he wasn't losing his footing.

"I don't _care_ about what we did, I carried the sky for you at one point, remember?"

"Oh, I could never forget." The large voice grimily spoke. Thomas peered around the corner to see something awfully pretentious. There was a tall, blonde woman with wonderful curls, she was strung in tight ropes from a steel device. It was Annabeth Chase. Thomas's heart began beating faster, he looked quickly behind him to see Laura's face light up, and however it looked desperately worried. Thomas wouldn't blame her.

Annabeth looked _really, really_ beaten down. She had blood all over her face and it didn't look like a joke, she kept speaking like she was about to pass out and she looked like it too. Thomas could see the sweat on her from here, she was being held above a large fire just far enough that the heat would reach her in only a form of temperature, making her deprived. If she was lowered anymore, she'd be roasted.

It was obvious she was being tortured, however this wasn't the smartest form of it. It was plain. Thomas had expected more from the enemies. Something _smarter_. Pushing that asides, Thomas stared behind him and looked at the three staring back. They needed to think of a plan. Fast.

"Don't play smart with me – this isn't the first time we meet. I'm smarter. Bolder." The voice spoke again. Then the ground shook terrifyingly as Thomas watched in horror as 40 feet tall, stone like titan or giant stood up. Thomas didn't quite know the difference yet. He hoped he wouldn't have to find out. He was pretty sure his jaw actually dropped to the ground.

"Why – are you doing this?" Annabeth coughed out, drowsily. Laura latched onto the nearest person's back, who happened to be Curtis. She was sweating. Curtis frowned and looked startled, but then he grabbed her hand and shushed her.

"Because, this isn't really about – _us_." The giant mumbled, as if they had some history together. "This is about me – _finally_ getting rid of that stupid sky. I'm tired of being under that weight. I've been there long enough. If I can prove myself – this is my chance." The voice gravelled.

" _Prove_ yourself? Atlas – this isn't going to –"Annabeth snorted. Atlas shook as his size shrunk to that of a normal man, he stood shaking his head.

"The odds are not in your favor, you childish gods and demigods. You may not have heard, but I was a born commander. I will go back to my position and we will end you." Atlas said, the ground still shook. Thomas stared as he saw a shadow, there were tiny monsters bristling around and tittering in the background. Annabeth looked like she was going to stab someone, but she couldn't, her conflict was painful to watch.

"How did you manage to even – outsmart him?"

"Enceladus? That. That part was easy, but I don't need to tell you _my_ battle plans. This isn't just some _small_ thought. I've been planning this for years now, especially since the fates paid me a tiny visit. It was so nice of them." Atlas said.

"Who's Enceladus?" Laura hissed, Curtis shook his head as Vira frowned.

"He's an ancient – giant? I think he's a giant. He was made to oppose Athena and anyone that carried her bloodline." Vira whispered.

"That explains – why your mom is here, instead of anyone else." Curtis nodded.

"Enceladus cannot hold the sky for long – Atlas. He's weak, he only uses his wits to survive, though I admit he has lots. If the sky falls – nothing is worth it. Let me go and we can – "

"Don't be foolish. I may not be the smartest, but I won't let you go on whim. Your battle tactics are running out, the whole demigod race." Atlas shook his head. "Do you want me to lower you? Perhaps I'll have a _lovely_ demigod dinner. I won't share one bit with Enceladus."

Laura inhaled so sharply and loudly. She covered her mouth and nose as soon as she realized what she had done but it seemed Atlas had heard as so did Annabeth. They both looked straight at the corner they were hiding behind.

"Crap." Thomas said, smacking against the wall. "We don't – we don't have a plan."

"I'm sorry." Laura closed her eyes, her eyebrows furrowed. Her hands were so sweaty she had to keep wiping them every two seconds. "This is my fault."

The footsteps were as heavy as the earth itself. Atlas wasn't really a secretive type. Thomas prayed to the gods that he wouldn't turn. They needed time. More time to at least think a plan through.

Thomas realized he wasn't exactly the most _skilled_ at coming up with plans. In fact he could barely come up with a plan while practicing. This was going to go to hell and back.


	12. ITS BACK

Hi guys,

So it's mia, the author of this this 5 part fanfiction series about the children of the seven and the rest, and I know I've been on hiatus for too long but that's mainly because I didn't have much motivation nor did I have the time to write (god it's been a while). But today I'm really glad to announce that I'm picking this fanfic back up because I do have the goal to finish this series.

Thank you and please keep reading!


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